indiapost_03-05-2010

Certified by “CIRCULATION VERIFICATION COUNCIL Readership 117,765”

Top Stories V O I C E O F I N D I A N S W O R L D W I D E

www.indiapost.com

NEW YORK • WASHINGTON D.C. • CHICAGO • ATLANTA • CALIFORNIA VOL 15, No. 808 March 5, 2010 50¢ Periodical Postage

India Post

CONTENTS

Details on page 7

Details on page 8

Details on page 13

YES 32%

Last week’s result

NO 68%

This week’s question

INDIA POST [email protected]

Should India continue talkswith Pak?

Details on page 7

Details on page 15

Details on page 22

Bollywood ---------------------- 24-25

Classifieds --------------------- 45-47

Community Post -------------- 10-20

Date Book -------------------------- 48

Edit Page --------------------------- 50

HealthScience Post --------- 26-28

Horoscope ------------------------- 21

Immigration Post ------------- 40-43

Life Style ----------------------- 35-37

Philosophy ------------------------- 49

Publisherís Diary ------------------ 4

Real Estate ------------------------ 44

Sports Post -------------------- 22-23

TechBiz Post ------------------- 38-39

Travel & Hospitality Post ---- 29-32

Sridhar electrifiesthe world withmagic box

Win clients withhuman touch,SIAEA told

Is US becoming riskyfor Indians?

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

greets Bloom Energy CEO K.R. Sridhar at the

official launch of Bloom Energy Server,

dubbed the "Bloom Box," at eBay's San

Jose, Calif., headquarters. Former Secretary

of State Colin Powell was among the

attendees.

(Details on page 6)

Carol Doscher Neera Tandenquits ObamaAdministration

Sachin hailedon doublecentury feat

NY lab CEOV. Reddyfound guilty

Asian Groupendorses Indiafor UN Council

Details on page 9

Details on page 7

Details on page 7

Communitycondemns Sikhbeheading

CanadianNRI wins UNgreen prize

NRI shopkeeperkilled by UKteenage gang

Church membersvisits mosquein Chino

REBUILDING TRUST: Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and visiting Pakistani Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir

shake hands prior to their meeting in New Delhi

INDIA SAYS END TERROR;PAK HARPS KASHMIR

'Trust deficit' remains; two sides to remain in touch

NEW DELHI: Pressing Pakistan to end terrorism directedagainst this country, India on Thursday gave it three dos-siers containing names of 34 terrorists wanted here, in-cluding LeT chief Hafiz Saeed, with a demand for handingthem over and other effective actions.

At the day-long talks between Foreign SecretaryNirupama Rao and her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir

aimed at ending the chill in bilateral ties, the two sidesnoted the "trust" deficit in the ties and decided to "remainin touch and continue endeavor to restore trust".

Rao told a press conference after the talks that "Wehave set out to take a first step towards rebuilding trustand I believe my meeting with the Pakistan Foreign Secre-tary has constituted that first step." Details on page 5

India Postwww.indiapost.com

March 5, 20102

March 5, 2010 India Post 3www.indiapost.com

24

Mission Statement

To empower the Indian Diaspora and make their voice strong and effective in countries of their adoption. RJ Media conglomerateoffers a credible, professional and complete package of news, opinion, entertainment, networking and information.

NewsweeklyIndia Post

India Post March 5, 20104

Romesh K [email protected]

For editorial, contact: [email protected] or call 510-797-7799

Classifieds: Tel: 510-938-8668; E-mail:[email protected] Inquiry: Tel: 510-257-4374; E-mail: [email protected]

CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS1900 Mowry Ave # 201 Fremont, CA 94538

Tel: 510-797-7799, Fax: 510-790-2806; E-mail: [email protected]

E-SUBSCRIPTION: Vikram PaulTel: 510-789-7520 Extn: 208; E-mail: [email protected]

For Editorial: Sonia SidhuTel: 510-797-7799; E-mail: [email protected]

SAN FRANCISCO & SILICONVALLEY1900 Mowry Ave # 201 Fremont, CA 94538Tel: 510-938-8667e-mail: [email protected]

LOS ANGELES12908 Indian Lane Norwalk,CA 90650Fax: 562-947-0632Tel: 562-644-9523, [email protected]: 562-441-5511, [email protected]: 562-929-4213, [email protected]

CHICAGO2740 W Devon Ave Chicago IL 60659Tel: 773-973-7394; Fax: 773-973-7396;Email: [email protected]

NEW YORKTel: 212-944-1931, Fax: 732-969-3735Tel: 908-338-3752 (Marketing)Tel: 732-283-4939 (Editorial)E-mail: [email protected]

NEW JERSEY21 Longfellow st., Carteret, NJ 07008Tel: 732-969-1114; Fax: 732-969-3735E-mail: [email protected]

BOSTONTel: 617-298-9200; Fax: 617-298-1104GOPE; E-mail: [email protected]

ATLANTA67 Peach Tree Dr., Ste. 102, BuckheadAtlanta, GA 30309Tel: 404-425-3021E-mail: [email protected]

FLORIDA8401 West Sample Road30, Coral Springs, Florida - 33065

TORONTO, CANADATel/Fax: 416-744-8610

DELHIJin Kushal Suri Complex, 3rd Floor,230-A, Masjid Moth, (NDSE Part-II)New Delhi - 110049Tel: 11-46142940, 26257769Fax: 11-46142969E-mail:[email protected]

MUMBAI• Shivam, 3rd FloorOpp Raj Kumar HotelAndheri (W) MumbaiTel: (22) 2677 7782Email: [email protected]• Fernandes MansionTam Taloa, Bassien (W) Mumbai09619 330159

NASHIK6 Amrit DharaDeolali, Near Nashik-422 10194 23 138 700

Romesh & Sunita Japra PublishersSubhash C Japra Co-PublisherVikram Paul PresidentKrishan Sharma Mg Director & Joint EditorRanjana Sodhi Managing EditorVinod Dhawan Senior EditorNaresh Sodhi General ManagerGhanshyam Bisht Supervisor Graphics

SAN FRANCISCO & SILICON VALLEYVijay Thapar CPRO & AdvertisingSonia Sidhu Management AnalystRadhika Jhamb CorrespondentSudesh Kumari CorrespondentDeepa Japra Youth Post CorrespondentRama Mehra AdvertisingBhumi Bhutani Health Science CorrespondentJaya Gautam CorrespondentSujata Singh Correspondent

Los AngelesMrs Shashi Trivedi Bureau ChiefJ S Bedi PR & MarketingMrs Prem Kishore Sr CorrespondentGreg Heffernan CorrespondentMs Bobby Sharma CorrespondentBabeeta Kaur Dhillon CorrespondentPavan Kaur Bhatia Correspondent

CHICAGORamesh Soparawala Resident EditorA Q Siddiqui Correspondent

ST. LOUISAshwin Patel Correspondent

NEW YORK & NEW JERSEYPinky Kaur Bureau ChiefSrirekha N. Chakravarty CorrespondentNikita Japra CorrespondentSukhvinder Saini Circulation

ATLANTASanjay Saggere Bureau Chief

FLORIDAB K Madnani

CANADAFirdaus Ali Correspondent

BOSTONGope Gidwani Bureau Chief

DETROITAshok B Jain, M D Bureau ChiefGurminder Singh

SAN DIEGONeelu Bhardwaj Bureau Chief

SACRAMENTOMadan Sharma Bureau ChiefJanak Sidhra CorrespondentUpen Shukla Correspondent

CENTRAL VALLEY (CA)Dr Ram Saini Bureau ChiefSheila Rogers Correspondent

YUBA CITY (CA)Satnam Tatla Correspondent

CAROLINASNalini Raja Patel Correspondent

INDIAVinod Dhawan Senior Editor &Bureau Chief

NEW DELHIVinod Kumar Khatana GraphicsMadan Bangari Graphics

PUNJABShiv Japra Bureau ChiefAnil Kanwar Senior Correspondent/Marketing

CHANDIGARHRaj Kumar Bali Correspondent

DOABA, PUNJABRomesh Kaura Correspondent

HYDERABADM Sagar Kumar Bureau Chief

MUMBAINidhi Soparawala CorrespondentFrank Fernandes Correspondent

NASHIKMahendra Thakkar Correspondent

The Weekly NewspaperServing Indians Worldwide

www.indiapost.com

India Post

HIGHLIGHTSPublisher’s Diary

INFO-CENTER

For advertisement rates call the office nearest to you:

BollywoodShah Rukh’s jigWhen Shah Rukh was conferred a doc-torate by a UK university, he broke intoa jig in his convocation gown.

1Cover Story:Indo-Pak talks

10Community:Strong ties

35Life Style:Mythili enchantsThe Getty Museum presented the ac-complished, exciting Bharata Natyamdancer Mythili Prakash and Company.

22Sports:

Sachin Tendulkar's world record doublehundred was yet another landmark in acareer of miles and milestones.

38Techbiz:

British PM Gordon Brown went on a'major charm offensive' to encourage in-vestment from India and China

29Travel:OotyThe lush vegetation and the lavender-blue sheen of the mountains offer apromise of a summer of peace

Wooing India

Robert O. Blake Jr. says that the relation-ship between India and USA was critical,strong and evolving.

India gave Pakistan three dossiers contain-ing names of 34 terrorists wanted by it, in-cluding LeT chief Hafiz Saeed.

Double champion

The recent quitting of Neera Tanden as special advisor to the Secretary ofHealth and Human Services in the Obama Administration, to assume the

top job at the Center for American Progress puts into perspective the prominentpresence of Indian Americans at the center of action in the nation's capital.

At last count I found there were at least 35 Indian Americans in key posts inthe Obama Administration. There are, of course several more working in lesserposts in the administration, in the White House and on Capitol Hill.

We have Indian Americans in departments from Department of State, Home-land Security, Commerce, Justice, Transportation, Energy, Interior, Faith, Agri-culture, to the White House offices of the Chief of Staff to Management & Budget,Placement, Intergovernmental Affairs, Social Innovation, Public Engagement,Arts & Humanities to the First Lady's press assistant to White House videographer.A position as important as that of the President's Special Envoy to the Muslimnations is also being held by an Indian American now.

By far, the most high profile position in view of the recent Haiti earthquake isthat of Rajiv Shah who, as head of USAID has been President Obama's pointman in overseeing and coordinating the US aid efforts in the stricken country.Then there are Aneesh Chopra, the first Chief Technology Officer, Vivek Kundra,the Federal Chief Information Officer, Suresh Kumar in the Commerce Depart-ment, Preet Bharara, the US Attorney for New York and Neal Katyal, principaldeputy solicitor general.

It's interesting to note that this set of Americans of Indian origin is so newschool, and found the positions they are in through sheer merit. Second genera-tion Indians as they may be, these dynamic people are largely oriented to Americaand its interests and do not necessarily lean towards anything Indian.

Still, it can be a matter of pride for the first generation Indian Americans whopaved this very path for the younger set through old school tactics like cultivat-ing and contributing, if not sheer determination to achieve the ultimate Americandream of having an Indian American in the Oval office one day.

India Post (ISSN-1064-3868) is published weekly for

$30 for 52 issues yearly by India Post, 1900 Mowry Ave

# 201 Fremont, CA 94538. Periodicals postage paid

at Norwalk, CA and additional mailing office.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to the

corporate headquarters: 1900 Mowry Ave # 201

Fremont, CA 94538

Copyright © 1994 Indamec, Inc.

DISCLAIMER

India Post assumes all advertisers to be reliable

and responsible for all liability for their claimers

India PostMarch 5, 2010 5

www.indiapost.com

Cover/Top Stories

India says end terror; Pak harps Kashmir'Trust deficit' remains; two sides to remain in touch

Pak pitches for quick resumption of composite dialogue

NEW DELHI: Pressing Pakistan to endterrorism directed against this country, In-dia on Thursday gave it three dossiers con-taining names of 34 terrorists wanted here,including LeT chief Hafiz Saeed, with a de-mand for handing them over and other ef-fective actions.

At the day-long talks between ForeignSecretary Nirupama Rao and her Pakistanicounterpart Salman Bashir aimed at endingthe chill in bilateral ties, the two sides notedthe "trust" deficit in the ties and decided to"remain in touch and continue endeavor torestore trust".

Rao told a press conference after thetalks that "We have set out to take a firststep towards rebuilding trust and I believemy meeting with the Pakistan Foreign Sec-retary has constituted that first step."

While India focused on cross-borderterrorism, Pakistan raised the issue of Kash-mir, Balochistan and the water dispute. TheIndian side also voiced concern over thebeheading of a Sikh by Taliban in Pakistan.

Noting that the trust had been "erased"by the Mumbai attacks, she said the Puneattack, which is still under investigation,"is yet another reminder that our citizensremain vulnerable to terrorist violence."

Rao said she had told her Pakistani coun-terpart that "terrorism cannot advance anycause, but the cause of senseless violence"and that it was the "solemn duty" of Paki-stan to "eliminate all terrorist groups, oper-ating from their soil, regardless of their ide-ology or agenda."

With regard to 26/11, India "acknowl-edged" the steps taken by Pakistan so farto bring perpetrators to justice, but "pointedout that these did not go far enough tounravel the full conspiracy behind theMumbai attack and to award exemplarypunishment to all culprits."

India conveyed its persisting concerns

about the continued existence of terror in-frastructure in Pakistan and "unhinderedactivities of organizations such as Lashkar-e-Taiba/Jamaat ud Dawa, Hizb ulMujahideen etc. from Pakistani territory andterritory under Pakistan's control to perpe-trate terrorist violence against India."

In this regard, a reference was made toHafiz Saeed's provocative speech in Lahoreon February 5 in which he openly incitedterror violence against India.

"It was emphasized that the Governmentof India could not buttake a serious note ofsuch actions as it wasduty bound to ensurethe security of its citi-zens," Rao said.

D e s c r i b i n gMumbai attacks as "asymptom of a largerproblem" of terroremanating from Paki-stan, Rao said she"stressed the impor-tance of expeditiousaction by Pakistanon these issues, including by following upon the leads that have emerged followingthe arrest in the United States of DavidColeman Headley and Tahawuur HussainRana."

At the talks, Rao handed over to Bashirthree dossiers detailing activities againstIndia by groups and individuals based inPakistan. The dossiers contained 34 namesof those involved in Mumbai attacks andperpetrators of other terror acts here.

India demanded handing over of retiredArmy Major Iqbal besides Hafiz Saeed andsome Lashker operatives like Muzzamil,Abu Hamza, Abu Kahfa, Usman and SajjidMir in connection with Mumbai attacks. .

The other fugitives demanded by India

were Indian Mujahideen chief Asif RazaKhan and its senior member Riaz Bhatkal.

Details of activities of Ilyas Kashmiri, atop terrorist linked to al-Qaida leader, andhis threats against India were also enlistedin one of the dossiers.

India asked Pakistan to investigate theclaim made by a hitherto unknown organi-zation, Lashkar-e-Toiba Al Almi and a sepa-rate claim by Ilyas Kahmiri owning respon-sibility for the recent Pune blast.

"We said it was the duty of Government

of Pakistan to take effective action to dis-mantle and put an end to the activities ofall such organizations," Rao said.

Rao also raised India's concerns overrise in terrorist infiltration and ceasefire vio-lations across the Line of Control and In-ternational Border.

She pointed out that infiltration hadgone up by 40 per cent in the last year.

Pakistan sought resumption of compos-ite dialogue that was halted by India in thewake of Mumbai attacks but New Delhi dis-favored it, saying "time is not right" andappropriate "climate" was required for it andthat could be achieved through a "step-by-step" approach.

At the Foreign Secretary-level talks, In-dia made known its dissatisfaction aboutPakistan's handling of the Mumbai terrorprobe and wanted it to dismantle terror in-frastructure there.

With regard to India's demand for actionagainst Hafiz Saeed, Bashir said Pakistanis of the view that there are no laws in thatcountry to take action against him on thebasis of his speeches.

At this, a dissatisfied Indian ForeignSecretary underlined that Pakistan hasenough anti-terror laws under which actioncan be taken against the JuD chief.

When Pakistan raised the Kashmir is-sue, Rao told the Pakistan Foreign Secre-tary that India believes in resolving all out-standing issues between the two countriesthrough bilateral dialogue in "an atmo-sphere free of terror and violence.

"If we are to build upon the past discus-sions at an appropriate time, trust and con-fidence between us must be restored."

Rao also rejected Pakistan's allegationsof Indian interference in Balochistan, say-ing New Delhi does not believe in destabi-lizing any country.

On water dispute, Rao underlined thatthe 1960 Indus Water Treaty was the ad-equate mechanism for resolving such is-sues.-PTI

Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and

visiting Pakistani Foreign Secretary Salman

Bashir arrive to hold a meeting in New Delhi on

February 25

NEW DELHI: Pakistan on Thursdaystrongly pitched for resumption of thecomposite dialogue with India saying itwas "unfair, unrealistic and counter-pro-ductive" to allow the issue of terrorism tostall the process of improving relationsbetween the two countries.

After a delegation-level meeting withhis Indian counterpart Nirupama Rao here,Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir said Pa-kistan looks forward to reversing the "tideof regression" that has taken place in therelationship between the neighbors afterthe 26/11 Mumbai attacks.

Bashir also said the core issue remainedJammu and Kashmir and expressed will-ingness to address and resolve outstand-ing issues of Siachen and Sir Creek whichhe believed were "do-able".

Both Rao and Bashir held separatepress meets after their three-and-a-halfhour one-to-one and delegation-leveltalks.

While Rao said in response to a ques-

tion that Kashmir figured briefly in the talks,Bashir disagreed saying it was discussed"extensively".

"It is unfair, unrealistic and counter-pro-ductive to make issue of terrorism in a ge-neric way and stall the process of overallrelations between both the countries,"Bashir said.

"To create optics of dialogue withoutsubstance means we are not taking (the) re-lationship seriously or dealing with (the) is-sues seriously," he said.

The top diplomat said his country doesnot believe in "cosmetic engagement" anddid not want India to "lecture" them by de-manding that Pakistan should "do this orthat".

He was of the view that there was a "hugegap between expectations and mistrust" thatexists between both the countries today. .

Bashir also said, "One cannot be reallydismissive about the issue of Kashmir andany effort to be dismissive to the issue willnot be helpful...Pakistan will continue to

support politically, diplomatically andmorally the struggle of Kashmiri people."

He complimented Prime MinisterManmohan Singh, saying the Indianleader has a vision for a peaceful and pros-perous South Asia.

Accusing India of portraying Pakistanas the source of terrorism, Bashir said Pa-kistan does not like to be "sermoned" onterrorism and that they knew how to dealwith it. "If you keep saying that Pakistanis a source of all your troubles, I am sorry,it is short-sightedness," he said.

The Pakistan Foreign Secretary saidLeT chief Hafiz Saeed, on whom Indiahanded over a dossier during the talkstoday, does not speak for the State or gov-ernment of Pakistan or the people of thecountry.

He, at the same time, said the Indiandossier on Saeed is "more of literature thanevidence".

Bashir said both the countries shouldbe on a "cooperative mood".-PTI

Pakistan sought resumption of compositedialogue that was halted by India in thewake of Mumbai attacks but New Delhidisfavored it, saying ‘time is not right" andappropriate ‘climate’ was required for itand that could be achieved through a ‘step-by-step’ approach


www.indiapost.com

Top Stories

Sridhar electrifies the world with magic boxSAN JOSE, CA: Indian-Ameri-

can rocket scientist Dr.K.R.Sridhar, CEO of Bloom En-ergy, a company in Silicon valleyUSA has revealed the muchawaited scientific invention"Bloom Box: a fuel-cell." de-scribed as a power plant in a box.The invention looks like a miracleif the claims of Bloom Energy aretrue.

Bloom Energy debuted on Feb24 its highly anticipated powerplant-in-a-box that supportersclaim represents a breakthroughin clean energy produced fromsolid oxide fuel cells.

The company unveiled theBloom Energy Server, dubbed the"Bloom Box," at eBay's San Jose,Calif., headquarters. Attendees atthe highly orchestrated mediaevent included California Gov.Arnold Schwarzenegger andformer Secretary of State ColinPowell.

Dr. K.R. Sridhar has a BachelorDegree in Mechanical Engineer-ing, University of Madras TamilNadu, India, M.S. in Nuclear Engi-neering and Ph.D. in MechanicalEngineering from the University ofIllinois. He is Professor of aero-space and mechanical engineeringat the University of Arizona. Advi-sor to NASA in nanotechnologyand planetary missions

At the official launch, Califor-nia Governor ArnoldSchwarzenegger said that 160years ago people flocked to Cali-fornia for the gold rush and that

same spirit is alive in BloomEnergy's Bloom Box. Colin Powel(Former secretary of state USA)Brian Kelly (Coca-Cola) Larry Page(Google), John Donahoe (eBay)and Bill Simon (Walmart) attendedthe Bloom Box launch.

Dr. Sridhar has said "We believethat we can have the same kind ofimpact on energy that the mobilephone had on communications.Just as cell phones circumventedlandlines to proliferate telephony,Bloom Energy will enable the adop-tion of distributed power as asmarter, localized energy source…It will allow customers to lowertheir energy costs, reduce theircarbon footprint, improve theirenergy security."

This fuel cell is expected to

quench the thirst for future energyneeds in homes, business housesand Industries where energy shallbe produced in situ. What betterdream can come true if ourselvescan produce cheap and emissionfree electricity at our backyard re-placing the conventional power weget from hydel, thermal and atomicpower plants transmitted from faraway lands?

This invention has kindled thescientific temper all over the worldunprecedented in this century. In

the history of science at the timeof industrial revolution many triedto invent a perpetual machine us-ing the gravitational force. But fric-tion always retarded or stoppedthe objects from continuous move-ment. Later turbines and internalcombustion engines were inventedto tap the energy. In this centurymore information on the matterfrom nano to cosmic level areopenly available and the thoughtsof innovators stray into less trav-eled areas with a thrust on Envi-ronment.

The bloom box of Sridhar con-tains ceramic disks coated with aspecial type of green and blackinks. The disks are separated bymetal plates. The input hydrocar-bons are pumped from adjacent

tank. This hydrocarbon may be ofany fuel such as natural gas or die-sel. The oxygen combines with fu-els to trigger a chemical reactionto produce electricity. There is nocombustion. Each wafer of ceramiccan produce 25 watts. From a breadloaf sized unit of fuel cell one kilo-watt of electricity can be produced.More units of power boxes can beput together to build a big box topower a campus. The secret in thisinnovation is the methods of coat-ing green and black dyes on theceramic.The ceramic wafers with dye

Sridhar explains "For the sameamount of electricity, you need halfthe fuel…If you use a renewablefuel you are carbon neutral. Useall the electricity you want anddon't feel guilty about polluting theenvironment."

How Dr. Sridhar got this idea isanother story. Mr. Sridhar wasasked by NASA to find a way tomake life sustainable in Marswhere there is no oxygen. InitiallySridhar invented one reactordriven by solar power combined

with Martian water to generate oxy-gen required for breathing, at thesame time producing hydrogen to

power vehicles. That was meant forMars not for the earth. Later in theBloom energy venture Sridhar re-versed the same idea to feed oxy-gen and hydrogen into a cell togenerate electricity.

Optimistic imaginations runhigh on seeing this wonderful de-vice. People have started specu-lating that all the transmission linesin the planet shall be removed. Noneed to pay electricity bills. Theconventional players in energysector will go out of business.Bloom box may be used in devel-oping hydrogen-powered vehiclestherefore all the fossil fuel vehiclesmay be dumped in to the crushingyard.

Skeptics consider the fuel cellas not a new concept and are un-able to believe that there could beless emission in fuel cells and saythat the electrodes in fuel cell maydegrade fast and have a short life.This kind of oxide cells operate atvery high temperatures raising upto 1800 degree Fahrenheit.Bloom box of smaller size

But the credentials of those

who promote Bloom Energy areof high stature and world has toput their confidence on them.

Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byersin which Mr. John Doerr ofNetscape and Google is one of theinvestor has pumped about hun-dreds of million fund as Venture-capital into the company. FormerUS Secretary of State Colin Powellhas also joined the board of di-rectors. The customers who havealready tried Bloom Box experi-mentally include Google, eBay,FedEx, Wal-Mart etc, all bignames.

The cost of Bloom box $9,000to $10,000 per kilowatt when com-pared to $2,000 for wind and $5,000for solar power cannot justify thiskind of promotion through propa-ganda. Bloom energy aims forconsiderable reduction in cost upto $ 3000 on mass productionsince this fuel cell use cheap ma-terials.

When Edison invented the fila-ment bulb its cost was greater thangas light. From the English parlia-mentary group to New York Times(16.01.1885) rejected and discour-aged his invention. When one ofthe founders of Edison lightingcompany asked Edison to tell thecost of making one bulb, he saidit was one dollar and 25 cents.Edison asked how much theycould pay for one bulb, the mansaid he would settle for one dollar30 cents. But Edison fixed unbe-lievable just 40 cents a bulb witha condition that he would manu-facture the bulbs for 15 years. It

was agreed. In the 5th year Edisonrecovered the loss accrued in thepast 4 years and got 10 timesprofit that too by selling at 22cents per bulb.

But the times have changed.The profit motivation is supersed-ing the service motto which wecannot fault now. Otherwise thereis going to be nothing. Yet we onlywish such inventions shouldmake the last man to smile.

If the commercial world considerthis benevolently beyond the busi-ness values this news may evenrevolutionize the life of many mil-lion people. According to estimates1.5 billion people, mostly in SouthAsia and Africa lack access tomodern energy. Bloom box mayprovide them the much neededenergy without damaging environ-ment any further.

KR Sridhar, co-founder and CEO of Silicon Valley startup Bloom Energy, holds up a fuel cell at a news conference at

eBay offices in San Jose, Calif., Wednesday, Feb. 24

At the official launch, California Governor ArnoldSchwarzenegger said that 160 years ago peopleflocked to California for the gold rush and thatsame spirit is alive in Bloom Energy's Bloom Box.Colin Powel (Former secretary of state USA) BrianKelly (Coca-Cola) Larry Page (Google), JohnDonahoe (eBay) and Bill Simon (Walmart)attended the Bloom Box launch


www.indiapost.com

Top Stories

Win clients with human touch, Indian Americans told

India Post News Service

NEW YORK: Employing theat-rical gestures and appealing bodylanguage, former actress CarolDoscher convinced a recent gath-ering of engineers, architects andconstruction professionals thatthey could win their clients' heartsand minds by incorporating hu-man touch in their presentations.

The lively seminar was an in-stant hit among the members ofthe Society of Indo-American En-gineers and Architects, who hadorganized it as part of an ongoingeffort to help its members improvetheir presentation and leadershipskills. The venue of the seminarwas the Superstructures Audito-rium of AT&T building in NewYork City.

Doscher and her associateGeoff Webb engaged their audi-ence in an hour long interactiveperformance during which theyoffered a variety of tips for creat-ing successful business presen-

tations. "Don't depend too muchon data in your power point pre-sentation, rather use a lot of graph-ics to make it effective," they ad-vised.

The self designated Chief En-couragement Officer of Graceworks,Doscher reminded the audiencethat 'the most powerful thing youcan do as a presenter is to just beyourself'. She said that interpersonalskills live in the lower right portionof human brain. She advised the au-dience to work out earlier on theday of the interview and practice tobe spontaneous. "Since half of yourmessage is communicated physi-cally, use large purposeful move-ments to help your listeners under-stand what you are trying to say,"she commented.

"The more you engage yourbody, the more connected youget, the less nervous you feel,and the clearer message be-comes," she advised.

Webb, who preferred to callhimself Chief Freedom Officer,

skills of professionals-- so theyare free to make the human con-nection'.

Webb said that successfulpresentations are the ones wherepresenter genuinely connectswith the audience. "You need tobe able to speak to the needs ofyour audience with comfort andconfidence," he said.

The seminar was sponsoredby MassMutual Financial Group,a company specializing in disabil-ity insurance. Todd Parker, thegroup's consultant presented avariety of options suited to pro-tect professionals in case of dis-abilities.

Introducing the presenters,Ravi Shenoy, president of

SIAEA, said that such eventsproved to be very successful."We have lined up a number ofinteresting programs for the ben-efit of our members", he said ad-

vising them to regularly visit thesociety's web site for updates.Shenoy asked the members toremain involved in the activitiesof the society.

SIAEA's president-electNayan Parikh pointed out that thesociety was organizing businessforums and seminars where ex-perts of the construction indus-try shared their views with themembers. Thanking fellow mem-bers for attending the seminar,Parikh invited them to attend theforthcoming grassroots meetingof the Society scheduled to beheld on March 7 at Tandoor res-taurant in Queens. This would befollowed by Society's GeneralBody Meeting on March 20 in NJ.

claimed to be a specialist in set-ting people free. A Graceworksbrochure introduced Webb as atrainer 'who helps deepen theleadership and communication

Asian Groupendorses India forSecurity CouncilIndia Post News Service

NEW YORK: India’s candida-ture for the non-permanent seatin the UN Security Council for theterm 2011-2012, from Asia, forwhich elections will be held inOctober 2010, was endorsed bythe 53 Member States of the AsianGroup in the UN General Assem-bly, at their monthly meeting onFeb 19, in New York.

Nineteen countries of theAsian Group spoke in favor of theproposal to endorse India’s can-didature for a 2-year term in theSecurity Council beginning Janu-ary 1, 2011. These includeUzbekistan, Vietnam, Thailand,Syria, Singapore, Bhutan, Af-ghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal,Saudi Arabia, Maldives, Indone-sia, Papua New Guinea, Pakistan,Sri Lanka, UAE, Iran and Leba-non. India was last a member ofthe UN Security Council during1991-1992.

Canadian NRI wins UN green prize NEW YORK: A portable light that

can be recharged by pedalling for 20minutes and was developed for usein areas not wired for electricity, haswon a Canadian of Indian origin theprestigious Sasakawa Prize of theUnited Nations EnvironmentPrograme (UNEP).

The device has been devel-oped by Nuru Design (Nurumeans light in Swahili), headed bysocial entrepreneur Sameer Hajee,a Canadian national with roots inIndia and Kenya. Speaking fromBali where he received the award,Hajee said a pilot project was al-ready in place in Madhya Pradeshand Orissa and he expected theunits to be rolled out by this sum-mer with 300,000 units in place bythe end of the year.

The device, called the Nurulight, is essentially a lighting sys-tem that can be recharged by a

pedal generator - the NuruPOWERCycle. According to theUNEP statement announcing theaward, "gentle pedalling for 20minutes using feet or hands, bi-cycle-style, can fully recharge upto five Nuru lights.

The lights give up to two weeksof bright light on a full recharge."The system has been field testedin the African nation of Rwanda.

Nuru Design will use theSasakawa Prize money to replicatethe success of the lighting sys-tem in India by the end of this yearand also in the African countriesof Burundi, Kenya and Uganda."India is one of our biggest mar-kets and one of the areas with thegreatest need," the Toronto-based Hajee said. He said that hehad "an affinity" with India be-cause of his "own heritage", ashe did with Kenya.

NRI shopkeeper killed in UKteenage gang attack

LONDON: A popular Indian-origin shopkeeper in the Yorkshiretown of Huddersfield has beenkilled while trying to repel a gangof hooded teenagers who weretrying to rob him.

Gurmail Singh, 63, sufferedhead injuries and fell to the groundduring the scuffle at his shop, anddied of his injuries at theHuddersfield Royal Infirmary.

A group of passers-by tried toprevent the gang of four leavingthe shop but they eventuallyforced their way out after astruggle.

The police is treating his deathas murder. The gang, all in theirteens and wearing dark hoodedtops and tracksuit bottoms, wentinto his shop on Friday night.

Six passers-by heard a commo-tion inside the building and wentto help. Although none of themwas injured, they were unable toprevent the gang from fleeing intothe night.

Detective superintendentDavid Pervin, who is leading theinvestigation, said: "Mr Singh wasa well-known and popular localbusinessman who had been in thisarea many years.

"I appeal for anyone with in-formation to contact us as a mat-ter of urgency".

Neighbour Ian Davison saidthere was a drugs problem in thearea that was "getting out ofhand"; adding Singh's death hadleft the local communityshocked.-PTI


www.indiapost.com

Top Stories

Neera Tanden quits Obama Administration to join CAPIndia Post News Service

NEW YORK: Neera Tanden isquitting her position as a senioradviser to Health and Human Ser-vices Secretary Kathleen Sebeliusin the Obama Administration totake a top job at the Center forAmerican Progress (CAP).

Tanden, who was formerlyHillary Clinton's chief policy ad-visor, was one of the very few fromthe Hillary camp to join the seniorranks of the Obama administra-tion. She will now take over asChief Operating Officer of CAP,which is considered the hub of theDemocratic infrastructure.

The Center for AmericanProgress said that as it continuesto expand its work and impact,Neera Tanden will be rejoining thecenter to assume the newly cre-ated position of Chief OperatingOfficer.

As COO, Tanden will be re-sponsible for CAP's strategicplanning and management of the

institution. Her extensive policyexperience-particularly in the areaof health reform-will give a signifi-cant boost to CAP's expandingefforts in health care policy andother arenas.

Since President Barack

Obama's inauguration, Tandenhas served as senior advisor forhealth reform at the Departmentof Health and Human Services,where she worked with SecretaryKathleen Sebelius and the White

House Office of Health Reform onthe president's health insurancereform initiative. Previously,Tanden was director of domesticpolicy for the Obama-Biden presi-dential campaign and policy direc-tor for the Hillary Clinton presi-dential campaign. She also servedas Senator Clinton's legislativedirector; a senior policy adviserto the First Lady in the ClintonWhite House; a senior policy ad-viser to Harold Levy, the chan-cellor of New York City schools;and issues director for the Demo-cratic Congressional CampaignCommittee.

Tanden received her Bachelorof Science degree at UCLA andreceived her J.D. from Yale LawSchool. In addition to her workat CAP, she will be an online con-tributor to The New Republic.

"When CAP existed only onpaper, Neera had a vision andgreat instincts for how a serious,idea-based institution could playan important role shaping the na-

tional debate and the policy thatit yielded. Her early leadershiphelped lay the foundation formaking CAP the strong institu-tion it is today. But we are notstanding still. We are thrilled tohave Neera back on board, as-

suming a central managementrole, as American Progress entersthe next phase of its continuinggrowth, maturity, and evolution,"said John Podesta, President andCEO of CAP.

Tanden's departure from theHHS is likely to affect the Presi-dent efforts at bringing inhealthcare reform, since in herposition at the HHS, she devel-oped policies around reform, andworked with the Hill and with out-side groups on the president'shealth reform legislation.

She also served as co-chair ofthe Federal Coordinating Coun-cil on Comparative EffectivenessResearch, which advised thesecretary on how to best investthe $1.1 billion in comparative ef-fectiveness research as allocatedby the American Recovery andReinvestment Act.

Before the presidential cam-paign, Tanden was Senior VicePresident for Academic Affairs atthe Center for AmericanProgress, which she rejoined.She was one of the first seniorstaff members at CAP, joining asSenior Vice President for Domes-tic Policy when CAP first openedits doors.

NY buildings safety testing lab CEO found guilty of fraudIndia Post News Service

NEW YORK: A five-month-long trial of the Testwell Groupcharged with falsifying safety cer-tificates of major New York Citybuildings including the new Yan-kee Stadium and the FreedomTower at Ground Zero, and JetBlue Terminal at JFK Interna-tional Airport, ended with the juryfinding Testwell Laboratoriesand its Chief Executive Officer V.Reddy Kancharla and vice presi-dent Vincent Barone guilty.

A jury in New York State Su-preme Court in Manhattan cameback Feb 24, with the guilty ver-dicts on charges of enterprisecorruption for faking tests onconcrete and steel at landmarkNew York buildings, againstKancharla and Barone.

Prosecutors said Testwell'soperation was riddled with fraud,from doctored results on concretesamples from construction sitesto made-up steel tests that re-ported inspections of welds thatdidn't exist.

The jury had given partialguilty verdicts against the threeon a myriad of other counts ear-lier.

Enterprise corruption is thestate's version of a racketeeringcharge. It carries up to 25 yearsin prison. Sentencing is sched-uled for April 7.

Testwell, one of the largestconstruction materials testingcompanies in the New York met-ropolitan area, was accused bythe Manhattan District

Attorney's office of fraud involv-ing 102 projects, including well-known buildings, firehouses,schools, apartment buildings,hospitals and hotels.

Defense attorney PaulShechtman, who representsKancharla, called the verdict "sur-prising and disappointing" inlight of other charges Kancharlawas acquitted on earlier.Kancharla was acquitted on more

than 20 counts and other patternacts, many involving offering afalse instrument for filing steel re-ports and invoices. He also wasconvicted of 14 counts and 20pattern acts, including a schemeto defraud.

Manhattan District AttorneyCyrus R. Vance Jr. said in a state-ment following the verdict that

"today's guilty verdicts shouldsend a loud message to compa-nies tempted to skirt safety re-quirements: This Office will ag-gressively investigate and pros-ecute this type of conduct to thefullest extent of the law."

"Testwell's conduct was rep-rehensible not only for its pat-tern of theft and deception, butfor its utter disregard for thesafety of the public at large, mo-tivated by profit," Vance said.

"We thank the jurors for theirextraordinarily long service andcareful attention in this very im-portant case, and we are pleasedthe jury found certain defendantsguilty of the top charge, Enter-prise Corruption, and relatedcounts as well.

"Testwell's conduct was rep-rehensible not only for its pat-tern of theft and deception, butfor its utter disregard for thesafety of the public at large, mo-tivated by profit. This prosecu-tion - and the verdict - was im-portant for two main reasons.First, this was not just a caseabout naked cheating. Whatmade the conduct of the con-victed defendants contemptibleis that the public at large reliedupon Testwell, as a full-servicetesting, inspection and qualitycontrol and assurance organiza-tion, to do the safety inspectionwork on important public con-struction projects for which itwas paid.

"Second, the investigationdemonstrated the importance ofgood corporate citizens working

in cooperation with this Office,to detect and prevent crime. Twovictimized companies hired, attheir own expense, project integ-rity monitors who uncovered thefraud and the victims alerted thisOffice to what they uncovered.Unlike the defendants, thesecompanies put the safety of theirprojects and the public ahead oftheir bottom lines and have takenadditional steps to ensure that

their projects are safe. Good cor-porate citizens helped us in oureffort to prevent constructionfraud.

"Today's guilty verdictsshould send a loud message tocompanies tempted to skirtsafety requirements: This Officewill aggressively investigate andprosecute this type of conduct

to the fullest extent of the law."I want to thank Assistant

District Attorneys Diana Flo-rence and Leah Keith, both as-signed to the Labor Racketeer-ing Unit - Construction Indus-try Strike Force, for their hardwork in successfully prosecut-ing this difficult, complex andserious case. Ms. Florence andMs. Keith were supervised byUnit Chief Assistant District At-torney Michael Scotto.

"I would also like to thank theInspector General of the PortAuthority of New York and NewJersey, the Inspector General forthe Dormitory Authority, theNew York City Department of In-vestigation and its Commis-sioner, and the Inspector Gener-als of the Metropolitan Trans-portation Authority of the Stateof New York and the New YorkCity School Construction Au-thority for their assistance tothis Office during the investiga-tion, as well as many of the vic-tims themselves who reporteddiscrepancies directly to us.This prosecution was a model ofcooperation between the privatesector, law enforcement andgovernment."

Meanwhile, the city BuildingsDepartment said the FreedomTower, the 2nd Avenue subwayline, the Yankee stadium and atleast 23 other buildings havebeen declared safe after retest-ing - at a cost of $100,000 perbuilding. But officials are stillawaiting results on at least 67more.

The Center for Ameri-can Progress said thatas it continues to ex-pand its work andimpact, Neera Tandenwill be rejoining thecenter to assume thenewly created positionof Chief OperatingOfficer

Tanden's departurefrom the HHS is likely toaffect the Presidentefforts at bringing inhealthcare reform,since in her position atthe HHS, she devel-oped policiesaround reform

A jury in New YorkState Supreme Court inManhattan cameback Feb 24, with theguilty verdicts oncharges of enterprisecorruption for fakingtests on concrete andsteel at landmark NewYork buildings,against Kancharlaand Barone

Manhattan DistrictAttorney Cyrus R.Vance Jr. said in astatement followingthe verdict that‘today's guilty verdictsshould send a loudmessage to compa-nies tempted to skirtsafety requirements:This Office will aggres-sively investigate andprosecute this type ofconduct’


www.indiapost.com

Top Stories

Community condemns Sikh beheading by Pak TalibanIndia Post News Service

NEW YORK: The Sikh commu-nity in the US has condemned thekilling of a Sikh by the Taliban inPakistan while mourning hisdeath.

Jaspal Singh, a resident ofPeshawar, was brutally beheadedby Pakistan Taliban. He was oneof three Sikhs abducted by theTaliban more than a month agoand held for ransom. The othertwo abductees, Gurvinder Singh,and his uncle Surjeet Singh, arereported to be still in the custodyof Taliban, their release pendingtheir families' payment of the de-manded ransom.

Indian National Overseas Con-gress, USA strongly condemnedthe brutal and barbaric killing andurged the Prime Minister of Indiato demand the extradition of thoseperpetrators who remain free inPakistan. "Cold blooded murderof innocents is a crime againsthumanity and no religious tenetswould justify such an insane act,"

said Dr. Surinder Malhotra, Presi-dent of INOC. 'This dastardly in-cident once again reveals the lackof resolve on the part of Govern-ment of Pakistan to protect its mi-nority citizens."

INOC said it shares the grief

and sorrow of the families in-volved and requests the Govern-ment of India to do its utmost tobring those terrorists to justiceand compensate the families intheir distress.

United Sikhs meanwhile ap-

pealed for concrete action to pro-tect minority communities in thePeshawar region of Pakistan. Theorganization has also appealing toseveral international and nationallevel human rights organizationsfor concrete measures that willprotect Sikhs and other minoritiesin Pakistan against such gross in-justices.

According to United Sikhs, lo-cal sources suggest that JaspalSingh, Surjeet Singh andGurvinder Singh, all residents ofDabagaree Garden, Peshawarwere en route to Khyber Agencyto meet with relatives whenTaliban militants kidnapped themin the Chora Tanga Akaakhel areaon January 21. Initially, the Sikhcommunity in Peshawar was re-luctant to report this incident tomedia or to the Government dueto fear of repercussions fromTaliban, and the families, alongwith the local community and lo-cal Sikh leaders attempted to ne-gotiate the release of three Sikhs.

Sources report that the Paki-

stan Taliban viciously beheadedJaspal Singh the night of Febru-ary 20 in the Upper Tirah valleyRegion on the border of Khyberand Orakzai agency and threw hisbody on the rocks. In a letter thatwas found on the body of Jaspal

Singh, the Taliban demanded 20million Pak Rupees ($235,000USD) for the release of the othertwo Sikhs, warning relatives andthe Sikh community against ap-proaching the media. The letterfurther stated that the Sikh minor-

ity community would risk the livesof the two Sikhs in captivity andcould also face threats of suicideattacks if the details of beheadingand kidnapping were revealed tothe media or security forces.

Condemning the killings, NRIsfor Secular and Harmonious Indiasaid in a statement: We urge theGovernment of India to ask theGovernment of Pakistan and exertpressure on it to punish the guiltyto the fullest extent. We also askthe Government of India to exertpressure on the Government ofPakistan to seek release of theSikhs and Hindus who are in thecaptivity of the Taliban and toprovide the captives protection tolive in peace. We strongly sug-gest the Government of India de-mand that all minorities, their prop-erties and religious institutions,that is, gurduwaras, temples,churches, and Ahmadiyamosques be safeguarded againstbarbaric attacks by the Talibanand other extremists operating inPakistan.

Mamta Vora (far L) greets diners by applying a tilak to their foreheads

as they sign a book at a restaurant in the Melbourne suburb of

Footscray as part of the ìVindaloo Against Violenceî campaign on

February 24. More than 16,000 Australians were expected to visit

Indian restaurants for the ìVindaloo Against Violenceî campaign

aimed at showing support for Indian students after a series of

attacks in suburbs like Footscray

Swaranjeet Kaur (R) delivers food to the tables at a restaurant as

Melbourne High Schoolís senior class and teachers book out the

restaurant for a protest lunch as part of the Vindaloo Against

Violence campaign in Melbourne

US asks India to raise FDI cap indefense to 49 pc

WASHINGTON: Buoyed by itsarmament majors securing multi-billion contracts, US has askedIndia to raise its cap on FDI indefense sector to 49 per cent fromexisting 26 per cent.

Making a pitch for this, theObama Administration also wantsIndia to undertake more sweep-ing reforms to attract new invest-ments, saying this will propel NewDelhi to a higher growth rate.

"Reforms to date have madeIndian companies leaders in areassuch as IT, pharmaceuticals, tele-communications, and now in-creasingly, in manufacturing aswell as in clean energy. We hopethe India will seize the opportu-nity to undertake new reforms thatwill both attract new investmentand propel higher growth," Assis-

tant Secretary of State for Southand Central Asia Robert Blakehas said.

Blake was more particular onopening up of the defense sector,saying, "We are urging the IndianGovernment to raise the cap onforeign equity in Indian defensefirms from 26 per cent to 49 percent to provide more opportuni-ties for US companies interestedin defense sales in India."

His comments at the Washing-ton International Business Coun-cil meeting come as US defensemajors Lockheed Martin, Boeingand other firms have bagged al-most all the major Indian armedforces contracts worth more thanUSD 10 billion.

These includes sale of Her-cules C-130 J transport aircraft

and Boeing P-8A maritime recon-naissance aircraft. US companiesare in strong contention for saleof next generation fighter aircraftto the Indian air force. .

Noting that the US recentlyhad some important sales to In-dia, Blake said there are signifi-cant new sales on the horizon,up to USD 18 billion worth ofcontracts, for which Americancompanies are competing.

Calling India as a rising globalpower, soon to be the world's mostpopulous country, with a trilliondollar-plus economy, Blake said itis a model of a tolerant pluralisticsociety in the region.

"And it is a country increas-ingly comfortable with workingwith the United States," Blakesaid. -PTI

US for resumption of 'direct' Indo-Pak talksWASHINGTON: The US fa-

vors the resumption of "directtalks" between India and Pakistanand "encourages" them to pro-ceed with the dialogue as it is intheir mutual interest, Secretary ofState Hillary Clinton has said.

Hours before the Foreign Sec-retaries of India and Pakistan heldtalks in New Delhi, their first meet-ing since the Mumbai attacks,Clinton told lawmakers that theObama Administration is in favorof resumption of direct Indo-Pak

talks "which were suspendedwhen (then Pakistan) President(Pervez) Musharraf, left office."

"With respect to India and Pa-kistan, we have encouraged theresumption of the direct talks,"she said appearing before a Con-gressional panel.

"Those talks between PresidentMusharraf and Prime MinisterSingh had actually been quite pro-ductive, particularly in producingresults on the ground in Kashmir,"Clinton said in response to a ques-

tion on Indo-Pak relations.The Obama Administration

has "encouraged" both coun-tries to begin a dialogue," shesaid. "They are going to be do-ing so... and we are sensitive tothe concerns that they each have,that it's their issues that theyhave to address."

"We continue to raise it andmake the case to each separatelyas to why it's in their mutual in-terest to proceed (with thetalks)," Clinton said.-PTI

He was one of threeSikhs abducted by theTaliban more than amonth ago. The othertwo abductees,Gurvinder Singh, andhis uncle Surjeet Singh,are still in the custodyof Taliban

‘We urge the Gov-ernment of India toask the Governmentof Pakistan and exertpressure on it topunish the guilty tothe fullest extent’

Vindaloo Against Violence

India Post www.indiapost.com March 5, 2010

COMMUNITYACROSS AMERICA

Details on page 1510

Desi News

Details on page 12

Details on page 14

US-India ties a defining globalpartnership: Blake

CHANDRAKANT MODI

L-R: Robert O. Blake Jr. Assistant Secretary of State and Kaarina

Koshenalustra, President and CEO, Executive Club of Chicago

CHICAGO: Robert O. Blake Jr.Assistant Secretary of State, Bu-reau of South and Central AsianAffair, said here that the relation-ship between India and USA wascritical, strong and evolving, andthat this partnership is good forglobal economic growth, besidesensuring regional security and

meeting threat of global terrorism.Blake was the keynote speaker

at the luncheon hosted by Chi-cago Council on Global Affairs atthe Chicago Club in DowntownChicago. Close to fifty invitedguests and businessmen were

present. Among them were In-dian Consul General Ashok KumarAttri, CEO and President of theExecutives Club of ChicagoKaarina Koshenalustra, Co-chairof Chicago-Delhi Sister City Com-mittee Smita Shah, and Chief Ex-ecutive Officer of Globe UnionGroup Michael E. Werner.

Blake started with emphasis onrelationship between the twocountries quoting PresidentBarack Obama that the relationshipbetween the US and India will beone of the defining partnership of21st century. He said that Presi-

dent Obama and Indian Prime Min-ister Manmohan Singh have bothsignaled a continual and evolving

partnership between and Indiaand USA.

Cont’d on page 12

Array of vendors at South Asia Bridal ExpoSURESH BODIWALA

Khursheed and Mariam Khan from KM Exclusive Fashion

Jewelry & Designer Wear

CHICAGO: An Arizona basedDulhania Bazaar organized its sec-ond Bridal Expo in Chicagolandlast week with quite an array of

vendors marketing their productsusually needed for a South EastAsian (Indian, PakistaniBangladeshi )wedding.

Dulhania Bazaar had its excit-

ing debut in Chicago last year bywhen they hosted their firstSouth Asian Bridal Expo in Feb-ruary 2009 that showcased pre-

mier South Asian vendors in dif-ferent wedding categories includ-ing Milan Banquet Hall.

Cont’d on page 11

Correction

Missouri Governor JayNixon has appointed

Sreenu Dandamudi on the Ad-ministrative Hearing Commis-sion. In our report last week, itwas inadvertently mentionedthat he was appointed by theMississippi Governor. The er-ror is regretted.

-Editor

Fundraiser to helpvictims of HaitidisasterRAMESH SOPARAWALA


CHICAGO: Gandhi MemorialTrust and Indian Community ofNiles Township has planned host-ing a "Musical Fund RaisingEvening" for Haiti Victims at Holi-day Inn in Skokie on Friday, March12 at 7 pm.

The highlight of the program isthat the artists are local and arequite talented. Singers includeShaila Khedkar, SantoshVarghese, Raju Bankapur, RitaModi among others. They will ren-der classical and Hindi film songs.The fundraiser is part of ongoingefforts by members of Indian com-munity to render help to the Haitiearthquake victims.

Music, dance &fashion show byNiles school

SURESH BODIWALA

SKOKIE: Continuing the cel-ebration of Indian Independencemonth by the Village of Skokie, theNiles North and Niles West stu-dents in coordination with "Com-ing Together in Skokie" hosted anentertainment program at NilesNorth High school in Niles, a Chi-cago suburb. The underlyingtheme was cultural integration andstudents of Indian and Pakistaniorigin mixed and mingled to makethe program a success.

Coming Together in Skokie is anew movement dedicated to pro-moting more in-depth knowledgeabout the many different culturesin Skokie through fine arts.

Church membersvisits mosquein Chino

He said that President Obama and IndianPrime Minister Manmohan Singh have bothsignaled a continual and evolving partner-ship between and India and USA

Dulhania Bazaar had its exciting debut in Chi-cago last year by when they hosted their firstSouth Asian Bridal Expo in February 2009 thatshowcased premier South Asian vendors

March 5, 2010 India PostCommunity Across Americawww.indiapost.com

11

Array of vendors at South Asia Bridal Expo

Youngsters Sonali Odak, Reena Bagn, Uma Iyer, Reekha Murali

enjoying bridal show

Wedding accessory from Bhaavani Shah

The second bridal expo withmore than 400 attendees and 40vendors was held at Milan Ban-quet Hall, Renaissance Conven-tion Center in Schaumburg (a northwest Chicago suburb) and it againshowcased a complete weddingsolution ranging from trousseaus,accessories, jewelry, weddinggifts, make-up artists, weddingplanners, wedding photography,honeymoon packagers and more.

The objective for Dulhania Ba-zaar South Asian Bridal Expos,according to Shy Khan, vice presi-dent Dulhania Bazaar, is to providethe community a place to comeand plan/shop for their wedding,meet vendors, build relationshipsand network by bringing variousvendors under one roof.

It provides the brides andgrooms and their families whatthey are looking for. It's a greatplace for-them to come and haveaccess to all the vendors they needfor their-wedding or any specialevent

The show has reflected the lat-est trends in attire, jeweler designsand also in display were stalls of

wedding gifts, make-up artists,wedding planner, wedding pho-tography, honeymoon packagers,hair stylist and many more. Withthe latest trend in attire and jew-elry design, the show was also thefusion of traditional as well as alatest style. The core idea of theshow was to provide choice andvariety to consumers, and in theprocess, bring the business com-munity to direct contact of thebuyers.

Rohit Sharma, one of the visi-

tors at the exhibition, said, "Theexhibition has everything that onewould require while planning awedding. I came here to look atclothes and accessories for mywedding."

Samira Khanse, who was oneof the visitors at the exhibition,said, "The exhibition is very con-venient for people like me who aregoing to tie the knot soon."Jitubhai Patel, Manager, FairfieldInn, said "the advantage of an ex-hibition like this is that we have a

target audience and we get thedesired footfalls. We have createdspecific honeymoon packages forthis exhibition. The response hasbeen great and the popular desti-nations are Mauritius, Singapore,Malaysia and Egypt, besidesKerala on the domestic front."

"Milan is an expression thatcombines the concept of beautyand togetherness with the feelingof friendship. Said Aliza Javed andKhalid Raza, two of the organiz-ers.

Cont’d from page 10

Valentine Day celebration at Indo-American CenterKRISHNA RAJ

Valentine couple Mr and Mrs Sudaksha Kapoor at IAC A group of Indian couples gathered at Indo American Center for Valentine Day celebrations

CHICAGO: Close to 100 mem-bers of Indian community includ-ing Hindus, Muslims and Chris-tians joined a Valentine Day cel-ebration at Indo American Center(IAC) in Chicago for fun and fair.The celebration was organizedand coordinated by Gita Chawlaof the Center.

The event kicked off with mu-sic and thereafter it was emceedby Syed Hamid who invited Mrs.Sudaksha Kapoor who gave a briefdescription of Valentine Day asto why it is celebrated and gavesome old references with stories,

lyrics etc.,She also said that celebrating

Valentine day is deemed auspi-cious for a long and happy mar-riage. And she also mentioned thatanybody can be Valentine includ-ing brother, sister, husband andwife and therefore, she presenteda photograph to Chawla as herValentine of the day.

Earlier, Syed Hamid also empha-sized that Valentine is the day oflove and affection to everyone andit should not be confined to hus-band and wife. So in order to meetthe day real Valentine Day a

couple who was present there Mr.and Mrs. Sudaksha Kapoor wascalled on behalf of Indo-Americancenter to be Valentine of the daymarking the celebration.

The program was followed bycultural program which was pre-sented by Saif Ali, Nalini Parekhand Nikhat Ali who rendered beau-tiful songs. It lasted for two andhalf hours followed by sumptuousluncheon.

Later IAC invited all marriedcouples for a group photographand Govindbhai Limbachia urgedeveryone to join the celebration

that leads to love and harmony.Shiv Chawla also helped for

various activities of the programand Mrs. Chawla who is the Se-niors' Program Coordinator of thiswonderful program thanked all thecommunity members for their pres-ence and co-operation, especiallyMs. Javanika Parikh and Ms.Yamini Chokshi who prepared de-licious food which was served onthe occasion. She also expressedgratitude to Bharati Patel who vol-unteered in making phone calls andKemal Huric for keeping the Cen-ter clean on that day.

A couple who waspresent there Mr. andMrs. Sudaksha Kapoorwas called on behalfof Indo-Americancenter to be Valentineof the day markingthe celebration

‘Milan is an expressionthat combines theconcept of beautyand togetherness withthe feeling of friend-ship. says Aliza Javedand Khalid Raza, twoof the organizers’

March 5, 2010India Post12 Community Across Americawww.indiapost.com

Recently these two countriesannounced a series of new com-mitments to work together to revi-talize global economic growth,while strengthening co-operationon clean energy, health, regionalsecurity, climate change and foodsecurity and eliminating terrorism.

India is the largest vibrant plu-ralistic, tolerant democracy withvibrant and fast growing vibrantprivate sector. The economy ofIndia currently ranks 4th largestin the word. Trade between the twocountries has doubled in the lastfive years with USA importingthree times more goods from Indiathan it exports. Majority of India'sgrowth has fueled large growingmiddle class which has doubledin last decade.

However there are problemsthat India has to overcome thatrelates 30% illiteracy rate, about20 percent of the population stillearning less than 2 dollars per day,and growing threat from terroristsincluding Naxalites.

The relationship between US

and India has grown considerably.Main areas of co-operation be-tween the countries through pri-vate small business participationinclude agriculture, education, sci-ence and technology, defense andcounter rising geo-political terror-ism. To emphasize the relationshipand seek solutions, the IndianPrime Minister Manmohan Singhwas the guest of honor at the firstState dinner hosted on Novem-ber 24, 2009, by US PresdientBarack Obama.

Agriculture is an important areaof cooperation between India andthe USA in present times. Agricul-ture consists of 20 percent ofIndia's GDP and 70 percent of In-dian population is living in ruralarea, largely dependent on activ-ity of farming.

Considering the fact that boththe nations at present have a vastpool of human resources adept atknowledge economy, it is onlynatural that the most optimalcourse such partnership can aimat is harnessing these human re-sources by concentrating on de-velopment and dissemination of

agricultural knowledge throughresearch, education and trainingetc. An initiative to forge such apartnership is the 'India-USAKnowledge Initiative on Agricul-

ture. One example of this co-op-eration includes establishment ofWalmart in city of Amritsar inPunjab to distribute agriculturalrelated products on wholesale ba-sis with joint India private agricul-

ture business partnership.Improvement of infrastructure

in India is another important bilat-eral business partnership. Indiahas ambitious plan to develop in-frastructure and plans spendingalmost 500 billion dollars in thenext five yars. Midwest companieslike Caterpillar, John Deer and othercorporations will be a big part ofthe development.

India has well educated dy-namic work force. Every year about200 million students graduate fromthe secondary schools. Out ofthis, due to shortage of highereducational institutions and fac-ulty, only 10 million students en-roll in college for higher education.

About 100K students also cometo USA for further studies. To ad-dress this challenge, many of theuniversities here like University ofChicago, Northwestern Universityetc are already involved to expand-ing the higher learning opportu-nity in India. They have been ex-panding their presence in India,providing partnership by exchang-ing university faculty, increasingnumber of student visas and in-

creasing Fulbright scholarshipquotas etc.

Clean Environment to addressglobal warming and increasingenergy requirement in India is alsoa big area of bilateral agreement.Nuclear and solar power projectsare being rapidly developed in In-dia by joint US-India partnership.President Bush signed bilateralnuclear energy exchange agree-ment in 2008. This treaty was rati-fied by the legislature in both thecountries and construction of thenuclear power plants are in pipe-line. Besides bilateral partnershiphas also resulted in solar poweredelectrical generation project whichwill produces 20,000 megawattclean solar energy in Punjab.

The presentation was followedby a brief question answer periodas to addressing solution to glo-bal terrorism. Ambassador Blakeresponded that the State Depart-ment is working to address this bytrilateral negotiation between In-dia, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Theevent conceded after vote ofthanks by Marshal M Bouton ofthe Club.

US-India ties a defining global partnership: BlakeCont’d from page 10

Fundraiser to help victims of Haiti disaster

RAMESH SOPARAWALA


CHICAGO: Gandhi Memorial Trust andIndian Community of Niles Township hasplanned hosting a "Musical Fund RaisingEvening" for Haiti Victims at Holiday Inn inSkokie on Friday, March 12 at 7 pm.

The highlight of the program is that theartists are local and are quite talented. Sing-ers include Shaila Khedkar, SantoshVarghese, Raju Bankapur, Rita Modi amongothers. They will render classical and Hindifilm songs. The fundraiser is part of ongo-ing efforts by members of Indian commu-nity to render help to the Haiti earthquakevictims.

Just a month ago Indian physician Dr.Chandrakant Modi traveled to Haiti for adisaster medical relief mission along withother members of "Flying doctors of

America" to render medical help to thoseinjured and disabled. He spent a week therestarting January 17. Giving his first handobservation and assessment of urgent andlong term needs for Haitians, he said thatover a million people displaced from their

homes and hearths are in urgent need ofshelter, food, water, sanitation supplies andhealth care. Earthquake still continues totake its toll on survivors. Nearly 300,000 areinjured. Children and pregnant women areespecially at serious risk without immediate

relief. Many more people will succumb tothe spreading malnutrition and infectiousdisease including malaria and diarrhea.

Most people, he said, are crammed intoovercrowded temporary camps and arehuddled under bed sheets strung between

poles or sticks - hardly enough to block outthe sun, but useless against the torrentialdownpours of Haiti's rainy season. In addi-tion, stories of violence against women arespreading, in the absence of police and hos-pital services. He pointed out that the emer-

gency response in Haiti requires• Food, safe drinking water, shelter, wa-

ter and sanitation facilities, emergency sup-plies of water purification packets, mat-tresses, blankets, clean delivery kits, new-born kits and hygiene kits. More impor-tantly, survivors need to be provided withemergency waterproof shelter and decentsanitation before the rainy season begins.There are about 37,000 pregnant women inthe disaster zone who are in urgent need offood, safe water and access to health care.There is an urgent need to support theirneeds with clean delivery kits, mattressesand more.

• Also needed is planning for immediaterecovery activities that could include ac-tions such as rebuilding homes and imple-menting a cash-for-work program for peopleto help clear debris.

Cont’d on page 15

Dr. Chandrakant Modi of Skokie, Illinois is seen treating injured woman and young man in Haiti.

Just a month ago Indian physician Dr. Chandrakant Moditraveled to Haiti for a disaster medical relief mission alongwith other members of "Flying doctors of America" to rendermedical help to those injured and disabled. He spent aweek there starting January 17

Many of the universi-ties here like Univer-sity of Chicago,Northwestern Univer-sity etc are alreadyinvolved to expand-ing the higherlearning opportunityin India

March 5, 2010 India PostCommunity Across Americawww.indiapost.com

13

Mahashivratri at St. LouisHindu Temple

ASHWIN PATEL


ST. LOUIS: The festival ofMahasivarathri was celebrated at Hindutemple of St. Louis on Thursday Feb 11 greatenthusiasm and devotion among devoteescoming from across St. Louis city and sub-urbs.

The Rudrabhishekam started in the

evening at 6 p.m. Poojas and Bhajans wereconducted through the night and the templewas kept open until next day morning. Devo-tees had a chance to pour milk on Shivaidol in the evening. Over 500 devotees at-tended. At the end of pooja prasadam wasserved.

The Temple will be celebratingChandramana Ugadi on March 16 and SriRama Navami on March 24.

Shiv Pooja being done at St. Louis Hindu temple

Viswa Hindi Divas celebratedat NY Consulate

Indian films fast gettinguniversal acceptance

MOHAMMADE GHOUSE

CHICAGO: Bollywood films are gettingmore and more acceptable globally. This isevidence once again that the 38th BelgradeInternational Film Festival will screen threeIndian films -"Gulaal" directed by AnuragKashyap, "Delhi-6 directed by RakeshMehra, and "Dev D again by directed byAnurag Kashyap.

Besides, the Festival that is held in Serbiafrom February 19 to 28 will also be screen-ing Ramchand Pakistani which deals with aHindu father and his son living in Pakistan.

Madhu Patel, an Indian architect and asinger, said that Indians should be feelingproud that their films are now getting uni-versal acceptance and respect. Two decadesago some interest in Bollywood made filmswas sparked by a runaway success ofGandhi but then it died down despite thefact that Bollywood is probably producingmore films than Hollywood and the indus-try employs more than those employed byHollywood film makers.

Congratulating the filmmakers, RajanZed, the chairperson of Indo-AmericanLeadership Confederation in Nevada, saidthat the time has come for organizing aninternational film festival in India. Thisneeds, he added, an integrated effort in fund-ing, encouragement, marketing/promotionand exposure in global avenues.

The film "Gulaal" has nothing to do withthe Indian festival of color, Holi. Here it sym-bolizes blood - blood that signifies relation-ships, betrayal, loyalty, patriotism, and manyother hues of life itself. It revolves around aRajput boy who lost his virtuousness in thedark world of betrayal and politics. Cast in-cludes Kay Kay Menon, Jesse Randhawa,Ayesha Mohan, and Mahie Gill.

"Delhi-6" takes up the subject of hope,

love, and discovery of self amidst the cha-otic but touching life inside walled city ofIndia's capital Delhi. The cast includesWaheeda Rehman, Abhishek Bachchan,Sonam Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor, and Om Puri.

Interestingly, "Dev. D" is based onSaratchandra Chatterjee's famous novel, butan attempt is made to modernize the theme.It stars Abhay Deol, Mahie Gill, and KalkiKoechlin.

"Ramchand Pakistani", which is about a


NEW YORK: Academicians,litterateurs and Hindi lovers in generaldiscussed the promotion of Hindi lan-guage in the US at an event to celebrateViswa Hindi Divas held at the Indian Con-sulate in New York on Feb 20.

The first session of the event, moder-ated by Prof. Surindra Gambhir, broughtout the efforts for 'promotion of Hindi' inUSA'. Sushma Malhotra, Assistant Prin-cipal of New York City Department of Edu-cation made a presentation on promotionof Hindi in schools while Dr. BindeswariAggarwal of New York University dis-cussed the status of Hindi teaching in USuniversities; and Dr. Ved Chaudhary,President of Educator's Society for theHeritage of India on the popularization ofHindi in USA.

In the second session, moderated byProf. Susham Bedi, patriotic poems inHindi were recited with a preface of their

historical context by Hindi exponents --Mathilisharan Gupta by Anoop Bhargava;Ram Naresh Tripathi by Dr B K Mehta;and Subhadra Kumari Chauhan andMakhanlal Chaturvedi by Dr P Jayaraman.

Around 100 guests including academi-cians, litterateurs, representatives of eth-nic media and people interested in Hindilanguage and literature attended theevent.

On the occasion, the message of PrimeMinister of India was read out by ConsulGeneral Prabhu Dayal. In his welcome re-marks, the Consul General laid emphasison the need for popularization of Hindilanguage and exhorted the audience tobegin the process by using Hindi at home.

Lively discussions followed after eachsession. There was unanimity amongstthe audience for concerted action to pro-mote Hindi teaching in schools and uni-versities.

The event concluded with a vote ofthanks by PK Mohanty, Consul (Education).

Pakistani Hindu father and his son, whoaccidentally cross the border to India. Di-rected by Mehreen Jabbar, it stars ShaoodAlvi, Adarsh Ayaz, Atif Badar, Karim BuxBaloch and Nandita Das.

"Videocracy" (Erik Gandini), is a docu-mentary being shown in the Fest, about Ital-ians consumed in celebrity worship whichalso shows Italian Prime Minister SilvioBerlusconi. It was partly shot in India.

Belgrade International Film Festival,launched in 1971, has had four million visi-tors and shown 3,800 international films.

Interestingly, "Dev. D" isbased on SaratchandraChatterjee's famous novel,but an attempt is made tomodernize the theme. Itstars Abhay Deol, MahieGill, and Kalki Koechlin

March 5, 2010India Post14 Community Across Americawww.indiapost.com

Music, dance & fashion show by Niles schoolSURESH BODIWALA

SKOKIE: Continuing the cel-ebration of Indian Independencemonth by the Village of Skokie, theNiles North and Niles West stu-dents in coordination with "Com-ing Together in Skokie" hosted anentertainment program at NilesNorth High school in Niles, a Chi-cago suburb. The underlyingtheme was cultural integration andstudents of Indian and Pakistaniorigin mixed and mingled to makethe program a success.

Coming Together in Skokie is anew movement dedicated to pro-moting more in-depth knowledgeabout the many different culturesin Skokie through fine arts. It is ajoint effort of several Skokie insti-tutions that have formed an um-

brella group to support commu-nity unity by sponsoring a vari-ety of special projects aimed atdeveloping a better understand-

ing of the many different ethnicgroups that live in our village.

There were several boutiqueshops set up as a shopping ba-zaar in the lobby of the school andnear the entrance of the audito-rium, displaying Indian dresses,ornaments and other accessories.Attendees had the option buyingany of these items at a very rea-sonable cost.

There were approximately 150students and parents in atten-dance, many of whom weredressed in gorgeous Indian-Paki-stani outfits. The Evening startedwith a scrumptious Indian dinnerfollowed by seating and the start-ing of the program. The Indiananthem was sung by Ankush

Verma and Krunal Bodalia fol-lowed by the American anthemsung by Sarah Abraham in hermelodious voice.

Niles North students dancing

A group of student artists who performed at the entertainment program

All religious groups topray together


NEVADA: "First Annual Inner-Faith Night" of University of Ne-vada-Reno (UNR), to be held onWednesday, March 3 will see ma-jor religious groups coming to-gether in prayer and dialogue.

According to coordinators ofthis event, UNR Unity Commis-sioner Maggie Overmoen and reli-gious statesman Rajan Zed, the pur-pose of this prayer meet is to pro-mote trust, mutual loyalty, cultureof tolerance, and life of truthfulness;despite seriously different traditions.

They plan to make it an annualtradition where students, areaclergy belonging to various reli-gions and denominations, and civicand educational leaders can cometogether and seek unity that cel-ebrates diversity.

This unity celebration will in-clude prayers, music, and dialoguein Christian (various denomina-tions), Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist,Jew, Baha'i, Native American andUnitarian Universalist traditions.

Some area civic and educationalleaders are also expected to par-ticipate besides students, clergyand others. UNR Unity Commis-sion and Inner-Faith Council areco-sponsors.

USC organizes Aman Ki AshaSURESH BODIWALA

Urdu Cultural Society, Chi-

cago organized"Aman Ki Asha:Peace Pow-Wow"last week at IqraFoundation, inSkokie as part of itsmonthly meeting.USC seeks to pro-mote interculturalawareness andbridge buildingacross societiesthrough Urdu/Hindi language.Around 100 peoplebelonging to India,Pakistan, and Chi-cago, attended thePeace-Pow-Wow.

Vikas and Ejaz Alvi addressing Aman Ki Asha in Chicago

Next item was a colorful andvibrant dance by Reetesh Bulsara,Ankush Verma, Abtaha AhmedMuhammad Mansoor Ul-huq andShaizan Khan. A team of studentspresented the next item with an

equally bouncy performance byDaina Mathew, Aliza Hyder, NidhiShah, Malav Shah, Asher Baig,and Faizan Tai. This was followedwith was a lively dance by FaizanKhan, Shaizain Khan and Riti

Patel.The program ended with open

and free style dances by parents,teachers and students; somedressed in Indian colorful outfit,with rhythmic contemporary tunes

from DJ Illest also known as Sanu.Participants were of diverse in agefrom two years to senior citizens.

The event was successful be-cause of the hard work of DainaMathew (president of the Indian

Association), Mrs. Sharmin Patel,Niles North and Niles West stu-dents. Diana Mathew had earlierwelcomed the guests while SarminPatel proposed a vote of thanks.Their costumes were very color-ful and attractive. The wholeevent was very enjoyable andmemorable.

The Indo-Pak Club and distin-guished faculty worked togetherto make the night a big hit. Presi-dents Daina Mathew and PunitModi along with Vice PresidentsKrunal Bodalia and Christy Tho-mas put a significant amount ofhard work into making the nightenjoyable. Sponsor of Indo-PakClub Ms. Shamim Patel and librar-ian Ms. Linda Moore worked es-pecially hard in overseeing thenight.

The program ended with open and free styledances by parents, teachers and students; somedressed in Indian colorful outfit, with rhythmiccontemporary tunes from DJ Illest also known asSanu. Participants were of diverse in age fromtwo years to senior citizens

The purpose of thisprayer meet is to pro-mote trust, mutual loy-alty, culture of toler-ance, and life of truthful-ness; despite seriouslydifferent traditions

Church members visits mosque in ChinoJS BEDI


LOS ANGLES: On Friday, Feb.19 the Baitul Hameed Mosque inChino hosted 15 members of anadult Sunday school class fromChrist Lutheran Church in Chino.Imam Shamshad A. Nasir wel-comed the members of the adultSunday school class, led by NancyPerez. The guests were interestedin observing the Islamic Prayerservice as part of their ongoingstudy of different world religions.They also wanted to engage the

Imam in a Question-and-Answersession to better understand theIslamic Faith.

The group arrived in theevening in time to observe theMaghrib prayer, which is held af-ter the sun goes down. The Imamanswered some questions aboutspecific parts of the prayer ritualsuch as why Muslims raised theirhands to their ears and said"Allaho Akbar" (God is the Great-est) at the start of the prayer, andwhy the prayer was done in Ara-bic, and whether Muslims knewwhat they were saying when theyprayed.

After the evening prayer, theguests were escorted to a confer-ence room for refreshments andthe Question-and-Answer ses-sion. Imam Shamshad was askedif women could be Imams, or lead-ers of the prayer, and Shamshadexplained that, no, women could

not be Imams because men andwomen do not pray together inIslam. Since the purpose of prayeris to focus on God alone and prayto God without any distractions,and because both men and womennaturally notice one another, theirattention would easily be turnedaway from God and onto fleshlyconcerns if they prayed together.

Imam Shamshad reminded hisguests that Jesus told his follow-ers not to commit the "adultery ofthe eye," so what then should bethe remedy to prevent this fromhappening? The Lutherans admit-

ted that separation of men andwomen was the only viable solu-tion.

Imam Shamshad also pointedout that the issue of men andwomen not praying together didnot affect the guests anyway, be-cause they were Christians, andtherefore they should considerthe restrictions placed on themby their own New Testamentscriptures, such as the one for-bidding women to speak inChurch and requiring them tocover their heads in Church aswell.

Other questions were raisedabout how Muslim children wereeducated and how Muslim par-ents dealt with the problems inAmerican society that apparentlyclashed so blatantly with theteachings of the Muslim Faith.

Imam Shamshad told theguests that all parents had simi-

lar concerns and challenges, andbesides, in Islam, it was primarilythe mother's responsibility toeducate the children in the re-quirements and commandmentsof the Faith.

And in the end, what matteredwas whether the religion one fol-lowed had solutions to the prob-lems in society and whether or notchildren could be protected

against the evils of societythrough adherence to their reli-gion.

The meeting with the Lutheranguests lasted two hours, and atits conclusion they all said theyenjoyed visiting the Mosque,that they learned a lot about Is-lam and they had many miscon-ceptions about the religion dis-pelled. They looked forward to

March 5, 2010 India PostCommunity/Californiawww.indiapost.com

15

having members of the Mosquevisit them at their Church in thenear future, and they hoped toreturn to the Mosque later for fur-ther interaction and exchange ofideas.

Both Faith communities agreedthat mutual understanding andrespect were possible onlythrough such friendly dialogsand meetings between differentreligions. Imam Shamshad invitedthe guests to return with theirminister whenever they wished,and made an open invitation forthem to invite other Churches tocome to the Mosque and learn thetruth about Islam.

The Imam gave the guests freeliterature on various topics, in-cluding the fundamental teach-ings of Islam and the Ahmadiyyabelief that Jesus did not die onthe cross but survived the cruci-fixion and went to India and theNear East to "gather the LostSheep of the House of Israel" --his self-stated mission.

Both Faith communities agreed that mutualunderstanding and respect were possible onlythrough such friendly dialogs and meetingsbetween different religions. Imam Shamshadinvited the guests to return with their ministerwhenever they wished

Fundraiser to help victimsof Haiti disaster

Long range planning for com-ing years in effort to support Hai-tians as their rebuild their livesand their communities.

In emergencies like this,women and girls are at increasedrisk of sexual violence, exploita-tion and abuse when seeking foodand other services.

"There are a lot of pregnantwomen in the streets, and moth-ers breastfeeding new babies.There are also women giving birthdirectly in the street. The situa-tion is very critical. Women try to

Cont’d from page 12 reach the nearest hospital, butmost of the hospitals are damageddue to quake. Functioning hos-pitals are full and overcrowded.It's very difficult for patients toreceive the appropriate care. Dueto all these reasons, mothers andtheir babies could die from com-plications without medical care.In addition to providing sanita-tion services, latrines and hy-giene kits, there is need for help-ing with a mass immunizationcampaign targeting residents oftemporary settlement sites," hesaid.

Cont’d on page 19

March 5, 2010India Post16 Community/Californiawww.indiapost.com

Michelle Steel endorsesHarry Sidhu

How Gen Jacob secured surrender of Pak ArmyVED BHARGAVA, LT COL (RETD)


ANAHEIM, CA: In yet anothermajor announcement of support,Board of Equalization Member

Michelle Steel has announced herendorsement of Anaheim MayorPro Tem Harry Sidhu for the open4th District Supervisor seat.Michelle Steel is California's high-

est ranking Republican woman,and she joins an influential list ofSidhu supporters, including re-cently announced endorsementsfrom the California Republican As-

sembly (CRA), and OC Board ofSupervisors Chair Janet Nguyenand Vice Chair Bill Campbell,among many others.

(he was on the wrong side of 80then) had failed to dim thetwinkle in his eyes, or dampenhis zest for life. His grip was likea vice, and his voice used tocommand. In an incisive, crispstyle, he put the war into per-spective for me very quickly.

I soon discovered that we hadboth studied in Darjeeling (in dif-ferent schools, in different eras),and that among other things, hewas a very keen student of mili-

tary history. Which perhaps ex-plains why he did what he did in1971.

The son of a Baghdadi Jewwho ran a reasonably prosper-ous business in Kolkata, youngJake went against his father'swishes to join the British IndianArmy when he was just 18.

It was 1941, and World War IIwas in full swing. His first post-ing was to Iraq, and then North

Africa, where his unit arrived toolate for any real action. He wasthen shifted to Burma to fightagainst the Japanese, and thento Malaysia. When the warended, he went on to take anadvanced artillery course in theUK, before returning to an Inde-pendent India.

His experience came in handyduring the India-Pakistan wars.He fought against the Pakistanisin the deserts of Rajasthan dur-

ing the 1965 war. By 1967, he wasa brigadier, and two years laterhe was promoted to Major Gen-eral.

In 1969, another World War IIveteran, Sam Hormusji FramjiJamshedji Manekshaw, was ap-pointed chief of the Indian army,and one of the first things he didwas to name Jacob as Chief ofStaff, Eastern Army Command.

War clouds were looming onceagain, with India struggling tocope with the huge influx ofBengali refugees from East Paki-stan fleeing persecution by mi-grants and the military from thewestern wing, bent on imposingMuslim law and Urdu as the na-tional language.

India under Prime MinisterIndira Gandhi had not onlyplanned and prepared for this war,it also armed and trained the MuktiBahini (or Liberation Army) --which wanted freedom from WestPakistan - for quite a while.

War was officially declared onDecember 3, 1971, after Pakistaniaircraft strafed some 11 Indian Airbases in the west in an attemptedpre-emptive strike. As India en-gaged with the Pakistanis in theeast and the west, The SovietUnion and the United States tooksides. The US, under PresidentRichard Nixon, chose Pakistan.

But before the two nuclearpowers and Cold War rivals couldget actively involved, Pakistan'seastern wing surrendered to theIndian forces. The war was over.Bangladesh was born.

Weeks later, Pakistan's ChiefJustice Hamidur Rahman wasasked to head a War Inquiry Com-mission, to examine the reasonsfor the debacle. On being askedby the commission why he hadaccepted such a shameful uncon-

ditional public surrender, when hehad 26,400 troops in Dacca and theIndians only a few thousand out-side, General Niazi replied: "I wascompelled to do so, as I was black-mailed by Jacob into surrender-ing."

He repeats this in his book Be-trayal of East Pakistan. In CrossedSwords, his authoritative book onthe Pakistani military, PakistaniAmerican writer Shuja Nawaznotes that "....in the words of a laterPakistan National Defence Collegestudy of the war, the Indiansplanned and executed their offen-sive against East Pakistan in a textbook manner. It was a classic ex-ample of thorough planning,minute coordination, and bold ex-ecution. The credit clearly goes toGeneral Jacob's meticulous prepa-rations in the Indian eastern com-mand."

It was Jacob who insisted thathe could not strike Bangladeshuntil the rains ended, which alsogave him time to make prepara-tions for the war. And when thewar did begin, one of things Gen-eral Jacob did was to blatantlyignore orders to take Khulna andChittagong and consolidate. In-stead, he made a beeline forDacca.

Harry Sidhu

Thirty-eight years ago today,on a blustery late afternoonin Dhaka, the commander

of the Pakistani forces in East Pa-kistan, General Amir AbdullahKhan Niazi publicly surrenderedto the Indian Army, representedby Lieutenant General JagjitSingh Aurora.

In that now famous picture ofthe surrender of December 16,1971 at the Ramna Race Course,there is a man standing on the

right, behind Niazi, with his headproudly up, gazing at somethingover the horizon.

He was the man who had mas-terminded the public surrender.

I first met General Jacob-Farj-Rafael Jacob (Jake to his friends)in November 2006, at his tinyapartment in Som Vihar, NewDelhi. I was trying to put to-gether a series on the 13-day war.

The first thing that stuck mewas the vitality of the man. Age

Gen Jacob

Mortgage rates are still historically lowAct now

• Lower your monthly mortgage payment• Switch from an ARM to a predictable fixed-rate loan• Access cash for large expenses or, debt management

• Get a shorter term to pay off your mortgage faster• Finance your closing costs as part of your new loan

Wells FargoHomeMortgage is a division ofWells Fargo Bank, N.A.© 2009Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. All rights reserved. #67456 10/09-1/10

Call today for a complimentary consultation.

Look into refinancing with a responsible lending leader. You may be able to:

• Since 2002, ranked among top 10 volume producers for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage in Alameda County• One of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage’s top 125 volume producers in the nation• Winner of numerous Sales and Service awards during his 17 years

Neil Sheth39265 Paseo Padre Pkwy • Fremont, CA 94538510-818-9536 Direct • 408-396-3545 Cell510-713-1387 [email protected]

Cont’d on page 20

Cont’d on page 20

Michelle Steel isCalifornia's highestranking Republicanwoman, and she joinsan influential list ofSidhu supporters,including recentlyannounced endorse-ments from the Califor-nia Republican As-sembly (CRA)

Pakistan's Chief Justice HamidurRahman was asked to head a WarInquiry Commission, to examinethe reasons for the debacle. Onbeing asked by the commissionwhy he had accepted such ashameful unconditional publicsurrender, when he had 26,400troops in Dacca and the Indiansonly a few thousand outside, Gen-eral Niazi replied:‘I was compelled to do so, asI was blackmailed by Jacob intosurrendering’


17

Shivratri with authentic 108 Shiva Linga PujaVICTORIA TRUVER

RIVERSIDE: For the first timeever Riverside's Shri LakshmiNarayan Mandir celebrated MahaShiva Ratri with an authentic 108Shiva Linga Puja. Mandir PresidentBhoodev Tiwari began the pro-gram with an introduction toSwami Paripuranand who gave apravachan on Maha Shiva Ratri.Swami then gave each sponsor aNarmada Shiva Linga and diyasspecially ordered from India for theevent. The sponsors were seated

in the front rows in the main wor-ship area. Each family had allsamagris and supplies needed forpuja and abhishekam. As PanditSeshacharyulu Samudralachanted from the main ShivaMandir, Head Priest Dr. ShukavakDasa gave step-by-step instruc-tions to the participants. Everyonewas able to observe the activity inthe Shiva Mandir by watching alarge screen mounted on the

mandap. After this part of the function

was concluded everyone wasgiven a chance to performabhishekam on the main ShivaLinga. More bhaktas continued toarrive all night long. By the end ofthe evening, at least 2,000 had at-tended the grand event, whichwas organized by Mandir Presi-dent Bhoodev Tiwari, ChairmanSurendra Sharma the priests andFestival's Committee Chair Hema

Nakka.According to Ajai Kumar and

his wife Malathi Marimurthu the108 Shiva Linga Puja was spiritu-ally uplifting and they would likeMaha Shiva Ratri celebrated thisway again. "108 is a special num-ber for Shiva and the puja had aspecial remarkable effect whichmade devotees very happy." re-marked Malathi. Ajai Kumar wasexcited to tell his story. At midnight

everyone was chanting "OmNamah Shivaya" when 2 beautifulmagnolia flowers resembling pinklotus fell from Shiva's altar to thechanting devotees. Everyone wasdelighted. They felt that Shiva hadgiven them a gift. With that inmind, Pandit Shukavak Dasa brokethe flowers into petals and gavesome to each bhakta as Prasad.

Maha Shiva Ratri is the nightof Lord Shiva when He himselfwas created by His own DivineGrace, manifesting himself as

Shiva Lingam. On this night Shivaredeems the world. He dances theTandava Nritya, the dance of pri-mordial creation, preservation anddestruction.

When creation had been com-pleted, Shiva and Parvati went outto live on the top of Mount Kailas.Parvati asked, "O venerable Lord!which of the many rituals observedin Your honor pleases You most?"The Lord replied, "The 14th nightof the new moon, in the dark fort-night during the month ofPhalgun, is my most favorite day."It is known as Maha Shivaratri.

As many as 2000 attended the event Devotees enjoyed the pravachan given by Swami Paripuranand

Devotees sat in rows for 108 Shiva Linga Puja and abhishekamFestivals Committee Chair Hema Nakka (right) and Vice-Chairman Sreenivas

Nakka prepare for 108 Shiva Linga Puja

By the end of theevening, at least2,000 had attendedthe grand event,which was organizedby Mandir PresidentBhoodev Tiwari,Chairman SurendraSharma, the priestsand Festival's Com-mittee Chair HemaNakka


Celebrating the lover: Harinder Singh 'Mehboob'HARINDER SINGH

My introduction to ProfessorHarinder Singh Mehboob's workoccurred in Kansas in Septem-

ber 1993. I found the opening paragraphsof 'the Rider of the Blue Steed" incred-ible: a fresh, endearing, and intelligentapproach to the "life-movement" of GuruGobind Singh Sahib. I would meet himfour years later on the Vaisakhi day of1997at his home in Panjab. As a contem-porary personality, I was most impressedwith his religious lyrical innocence, un-bridled devotion to the Sikh heritage andits institutions, unparalleled evaluationof world literature, uncompromising in-tellectual honesty and a dervish humil-ity and simplicity. My continuous jour-ney through his works is best expressedas the gold standard for exploring aes-thetics, history, philosophy, poetry, folkculture, metaphysics, and contemporarydiction - and all at the same time.

In the Sikh world, he shall be held inhighest esteem not solely as a literaryfigure, but as a Sikh who inspired Surat -state of consciousness - a way of exist-ing among everything which surroundsus that most can only hope to glimpseduring those sacred moments in life; thestate in which "The Way of the PeacefulWarrior" continuously is 'Jo hai so hai.'Poetry came out of him infused with suchgenius and perfection as to belie humanorigin.

Prof. Mehboob was a pure instrumentof the Guru - a rabab (rebeck) upon whichGuru Nanak Sahib plays an exquisitesabad (infinite wisdom). In his vast out-pouring of style, ideas, and images suchas khalas-kudrat, vismad-naksh, andvijei-tark, he not only captured the wholeof the Sikh inspiration, but also trans-formed it into an exquisite illustration ofthe Sikh spirit. The most banal experi-ences were cast in the light of universaltruths; the ordinary life of an individual- crowded, busy, and full of uncertainty -is shown to be an elegant and necessarystep on one's journey of the ineffable Ab-solute.

Though he was a professor of English,Prof. Mehboob wrote his major works inPanjabi - demonstrating the pinnacle im-portance of articulating in one's mothertongue. He was a product of the Marxist

intellectual movement (a norm amongPanjabi intellectuals), but embraced theSikh thought and lifestyle after graduatestudies. The ideological leanings, theprogressive journey, and personal limi-tations are all were quite visible in hiseveryday life. After the 1984 genocidalkillings of Sikhs in India he became par-ticularly known for his Sikh activism. It

is no secret that today's most celebratedPanjabi poets used to go seek his remarksand approvals before publishing theirwork.

Prof. Mehboob did not simply pen or-dinary books, he wrote multiple antholo-gies that re-defined and re-invigoratedthe South Asian literary world. His es-says, both in English and Panjabi, werebold and insightful. His contributionsgenerated thought-provoking discus-sions and debates across Panjab's bor-ders.

To appreciate "Jhana di Rat" fully, onemust delve into it often for the rewardscommensurate. The reader who returnsto the words finds himself steeped in itsbeauty and in its depths of sentiment. Ifelt as if I was lost in the streets of

Lahore; I re-lived the carefree momentsand worriless sleep at Nankana Sahib.The love for Panjab and its co-religion-ists is gracefully articulated in the oldglory of multi-cultural des (nation); aculture born through the Grace of theGuru, and able to live in 'Harmony in aWorld of Difference.' And lastly, lest weforget, the allegorical depiction of the

1984 ghallughara (genocide) in a poem'nind da katal ate shahid da ghazab' isdreadfully powerful. In fact, it invitedthe wrath of the Indian state which tar-

geted the Professor for elimination.In kind, I return to "Sahije Rachio

Khalsa" again and again in order to moreproperly absorb each nugget of informa-tion and insight. It is a work rich withSikh traditions and feelings and with theauthor's often religiously powerful "mys-tic logic." Its poetic prose is exemplifiedby the believer's conviction.

The elaborate explanations that Prof.Mehboob weaves in throughout are morethan suffice to satisfy the elements chal-lenging the Sikh traditions from within, aswell as from well-planned external attacks.The vocabulary is large; frequently, the sen-tences are intellectually stimulating.

I believe if this work were to be trans-lated into English, it would establish theuniversalities of Sikh thought at a glo-bal level. It addresses the falsity, clev-erness, and shortcomings of anti-Sikhtheses, effortlessly constructs argu-ments against Sikhi which scholarsstudying Sikhs haven't yet thought of,and then demolishes them with the finelyrical balance of Sikh sensibilities. Hehighlights the grandeur of the Guru.

For me, "Ilahi Nadar de Painde" worksits influence at the level of the soul, fil-tering, like the cry of the loon, throughthe subconscious. It is an unparalleledpoetic rendition of life, love, and theSatigur. The epic is a spiritual flight thatpierces through the heart and sendsshivers throughout the body. It echoesthe spirit and thought we encounter in

Harinder Singh Mehboob

the writings of the stalwarts like Bhai VirSingh and Mahakavi Santokh Singh. Iought to delve even deeper into the firstvolume to feel the prophet-genius ofGuru Nanak Sahib. I am saddened thesecond volume on Guru Gobind Singhdidn' t see i ts completion by Prof.Mehboob; nonetheless, I await its pub-lication.

Prof. Mehboob's works were not theproduct of literary ambition, but rathershould be viewed as acts of service. Thereligious and poetic traditions that pro-duced Prof. Harinder Singh Mehboob,Bhai Vir Singh, and Prof. Puran Singh canbe said to understand all of creation asproviding the metaphors of Divine Quali-ties.

Like the Sufi poets Abdur Rahman Jamiand Jalaluddin Rumi, Mehboob's poetryinhabits many dimensions of life simul-taneously. While most poetry leads usthrough carefully arranged sentiment,Prof. Mehboob wrote from somewherebeyond this common realm of thoughtsand feelings, as we know and define themtoday. His poetry is not so much thesearch for the immanent truth and knowl-edge, or some discovery to be made inthe outer world, but an elaboration of aninstant hereness, the immediate innersong of experience that floods this worldbut is not of it. It is an ecstasy of wis-dom that flows into words, sounds, andimages. Prof. Mehboob's labor of loveis the experience of the whole as well asthe parts.

The magnificence of Prof. Mehboob'spoetry heartened my faith, his magical

words and transcending love arouses anunquenchable hunger in me. Within thefolds of his words, I gain entrance to ahidden chamber; I hear whispers that areancient, yet intimate; I behold an end-less love story between an individual be-ing and the Satigur (the perfection).

An eccentric resident of 'bhutvara' hasembarked on his journey to the worldhereafter, but Prof. Mehboob's geniusmade its everlasting impression on thisearth. I consider it my great fortune tohave visi ted Prof. Mehboob atGarhdivala several times, listened to hislectures throughout the land of the fiverivers, and enhanced my own outlookwith the valuable perspectives of thisgreat teacher.

Harinder Singh is a co-founder of theSikh Research Institute.

Prof. Mehboob was a pure

instrument of the Guru - a

rabab (rebeck) upon

which Guru Nanak Sahib

plays an exquisite sabad

(infinite wisdom). In his

vast outpouring of style,

ideas, and images such

as khalas-kudrat, vismad-

naksh, and vijei-tark, he

not only captured the

whole of the Sikh inspira-

tion, but also transformed

it into an exquisite illustra-

tion of the Sikh spirit

Prof. Mehboob did not simply pen ordinary books, hewrote multiple anthologies that re-defined and re-in-vigorated the South Asian literary world. His essays,both in English and Panjabi, were bold and insightful.His contributions generated thought-provoking discus-sions and debates across Panjab's borders

His poetry is not so much thesearch for the immanenttruth and knowledge, orsome discovery to be madein the outer world, but anelaboration of an instanthereness, the immediateinner song of experiencethat floods this worldbut is not of it


19

Welcoming guests: East vs. WestDR. JASWANT SINGH SACHDEV

The other day, I had to ac-company one of my Indianfriends to the house of an

American for tentative purchase ofa personal property. It was summertime and Phoenix, being one of thehottest places in US, temperaturewas sizzling hot. Any extended stayfor more than couple of hours atone place, even if it were inside thehouse under the shade, would havenaturally made one tiresome, list-less and thirsty and we were no ex-ception to the rule.

After having been in discussionfor a while, both of us felt ex-tremely thirsty. But to our sur-

prise, neither the owner of thehouse nor his wife cared to askfor, or offered us a glass of waterdespite the fact that the need forsuch a gesture was very muchcalled for. Unfortunately, we didn'tcarry the bottled water with us. Asa hind sight, this was a serious flawon our part.

After sometime, thirst startedto bother us and when it becametoo much, I had to ultimately breakthe protocol for so-called 'eti-quettes' and asked for water. Toadd insult to injury, she handed aplastic glass to me and pointed

towards the water outlet in thekitchen. As expected, water wasat the room temperature and notcold enough.

Given the fact that mercury washovering at 110 degree outside,such a drink wasn't going to sat-isfy my thirst and I certainly didn'tlike it. Finding no choice, I decidedto gulp it anyway.

In my mind, I started to com-pare this kind of behavior of anAmerican host to that of a familyfrom the Indian subcontinent, re-gardless of the duration of its stayin the West. Being from the East-ern culture, we naturally take for

granted that the host would beoffering a drink or at least a glassof cold water, if nothing else.

The tradition of offering a glassof water to the guest back home issomething instantaneous. This isa built-in characteristic within mostof the people of the East irrespec-tive of their social/financial stand-ing or of their guests. In fact, sucha behavior is obvious all over andeverywhere regardless of theweather or the season.

Such traits are not easilyeroded, and nor they should befrom the psyche of an Indian, ir-

respective of the cultures of theWest where oftentimes the conceptof life and living turns out to beone hundred eighty degrees apart.Putting it lightly, more often thannot, life here is self-centered if notoutright selfish, to say the least.

The guests in India are treatedor at least were treated in the pastwith utmost respect, affection aswell as care and concern. The host,regardless of the financial situation,would go all the way for the well-beings of his or her guests, in factso much so, that taking care of theguest has always been perceivedakin to a religious act.

Open any book watch any T.V.show and talk to anyone, the an-swer always would be that the treat-ment of the guests must be above-par. The sweet memories of our child-hood related to a courteous andpleasant welcome to the guests by

our Indian parents irrespective oftheir financial situation had beenpermanently encrypted in the greymatter of our brains and such amemory refuses to fade away.

As and when a guest wouldshow up, and soon after he or shecould sit down, a cold glass of wa-ter followed by a formal soft drink,tea and snacks etc. dependingupon the weather and desire of theguest was the business routine.

This behavior was a built-incultural reflex and everybody inthe houses-hold, from a child tothe adult followed this unwrittenand unsaid protocol. Not only didwe enjoy the tradition, rather, feltproud about it.

So much so, that we alwayslooked forward to the appearanceof the guests. As children, we knewthat parents always had sometasty sweets and other snacks re-

served for the guests and with theirarrival we would also have theopportunity to enjoy portions ofsuch niceties once again, that oth-erwise wouldn't have been pos-sible.

Come night time, the guestwould be offered the best roompossible in the house, and if needarose the host would not hesitatein giving up the comforts of hisher own bed and wouldn't mindsleeping on the floor if the situa-tion demanded.

The people of the East alwaysbrought this point home to thechildren and that too, rather force-fully, that serving the guests trulyseparates a human being from ananimal. In fact, all the Dharmicfaiths of the East have always en-couraged such kind of attitudeamong its followers.

Fundraiser to help victimsof Haiti disaster


Cont’d on page 20

The guests in India are treated or at least weretreated in the past with utmost respect, affectionas well as care and concern. The host, regard-less of the financial situation, would go all theway for the well-beings of his or her guests

Haiti is one of the poorest coun-tries in the world, and this earth-quake is making things worse forimpoverished men, women and chil-dren there.

There are many reputable chari-table organizations which will ac-cept cash donations. Due to logis-tic nightmare of delivery of goodslike clothes including blankets,shoes and other goods to Haiti inview of severely damaged sea portand airport, monetary contributionis preferred.

The Three Idiots fame RMadhavan who was in Chicagolast week also had gone to Haiti tohave a first hand feel of the prob-lem. He represented Habitat forHumanity that helps buildinghomes for homeless at the globallevel. He also pitched for extend-ing help to Haitians.

Gandhi Memorial Trust is alsoaccepting donations. Those whowould like to help can contact

Omprakash & Usha Kamaria:(847)673 0811, Dr. C.M. Modi :(847)677 6008, Suresh Bodiwala :(847)420 4789.

Due to logistic night-mare of delivery ofgoods like clothesincluding blankets,shoes and othergoods to Haiti in viewof severely damagedsea port and airport,monetary contributionis preferred

No doubt then, that such a behavior hasbecome fully ingrained into an establishedEastern culture.

This kind of formal welcome in the Westis neither feasible, nor is felt essential, thanksto the obvious cultural dissimilarities andstyles of living. The culture of the Westentails and encourages the children fromearly on to abstain and shy away and main-tain distance from the so-called 'strangers'that otherwise could be considered 'guests'in Eastern vernaculars. The children of theWest are constantly primed with a continu-ous dose of advisement that the strangerscould turn out to be injurious to their livesand as such not to be believed or trustedupon. Unfortunately, this is not withouttruth for occasionally a child is hurt simplybecause he or she couldn't distinguish be-tween occasional drop-in genuine guestsversus harmful strangers.

Moreover, as a consequence of an over-abundance of hotels motels and fast foodeateries, this so-called hospitality industryhas entirely taken over the business of wel-coming of the guests and their stay, but ofcourse with a price. Unfortunately, this isnot a matter of dollars and cents, rather thelove, affection, inner connection and inti-macy have all vanished away as a result.

Offering a glass of water to the guest athome isn't the issue here. Rather, my pointhappens to be about the attitude that peopleof the West possess towards their guests

Welcoming guests: East vs. Westbased on their perception, which in turndepends upon their modern environments.Fortunately most of the members of thediaspora, regardless of the length of stay inthe Western countries, still happen to main-tain that golden cultural asset to some ex-tent which keeps on encouraging them toreceive a guest with a smiling face and open

arms. Treating them with all the due respectis of utmost importance. Certainly, as timepasses by there will be modifications in suchbehaviors as a consequence of changed en-vironments. But I sincerely hope that thiscultural asset of the East doesn't fade awaytotally and pass into oblivion once for all.

From the author of a recently publishedbook, 'Square Pegs, Round Holes.'

When he reached the outskirts of thecapital, he had 3,000 men. Niazi had nearly30,000. But Niazi also knew that theBengali people were against him and hismen, so he sought a ceasefire under UNauspices.

On December 16, armed with nothingbut a surrender document drafted by himbut yet to be cleared by the Indian highcommand, Jacob entered Dacca, andheaded for Niazi's headquarters. Fightingwas going on in the streets of the capitalbetween the Mukti Bahini and the Paki-stani army.

Niazi tried to bluster, but Jacob wasfirm.

"General, I assure you if you surrenderin public, accept these terms, we will lookafter you and your men. The Governmentof India has given its word and will en-sure your safety and that of your civil-ians. If you do not, then we can take noresponsibility," Jacob recalls telling Niazi."He (Niazi) kept talking until I said, Gen-eral, I cannot give you any better terms. Iwill give you 30 minutes. If you don't com-ply I would have no option but to orderresumption of hostilities."

He walked out, and paced up and downoutside Niazi's office.

On his return, Niazi kept quiet. "Iwalked up to him. The document was onthe table and I asked him: General, do youaccept this document? I asked him threetimes but he didn't answer. So I picked itup. I said, I take it as accepted."

Thus was the first and perhaps only

How Gen Jacob securedsurrender of Pak Army

public surrender in modern military his-tory won. The rest, as they say, is history.

Sadly, we do not learn from our his-tory. Today, as the nation celebrates 'VijayDiwas', it is worth pondering that GeneralJacob is not on any official invitation list.

Is this how we treat our heroes?




The children of the Westare constantly primed witha continuous dose of ad-visement that the strangerscould turn out to be injuri-ous to their lives and assuch not to be believed ortrusted upon. Unfortunately,this is not without truth

‘General, I assure you if yousurrender in public, acceptthese terms, we will look afteryou and your men. TheGovernment of India hasgiven its word and will en-sure your safety and that ofyour civilians. If you do not,then we can take noresponsibility’

March 5, 2010 India Post 21

www.indiapost.com

HoroscopeARIES

Mar 21-Apr 20

March 5

to

March 11

You will have few reasons to cel-

ebrate. Some issues involving a child

on hold for long will come to a pleasing

end. Money will go on buying some

expensive items and even gifts for oth-

ers. Opponents will try to hurt but end

up helping you. Financially it can be

another rewarding week if you take

actions quick and play your cards right.

Suddenly you will be full of energy.

Success in attempts will make you try

for more. You may receive some valu-

able gifts from in laws. Business will

improve and you will see old clients

returning after long time. Long awaited

news will brighten up everybody's

face. You will be assigned additional

work with some words of assurance.

Meetings with people in power will go

as planned and you will receive the as-

surance also. An influential person will

help you get out of a tricky situation at

work. You may make some money

through stocks also. It looks like a prom-

ising week for people working as bro-

kers. Planets will help improve image in

social circle and make money too.

TAURUS

Apr 21-May 20

LEO

Jul 23-Aug 22

SAGITTARIUSNov 23-Dec 22

VIRGO

Aug 23-Sept 22

CAPRICORN

Dec 23-Jan 19

GEMINI

May 21-Jun 20

LIBRA

Sept 23-Oct 22

CANCER

Jun 21-Jul 22

SCORPIO

Oct 23-Nov 22

AQUARIUS

Jan 20-Feb 18

PISCES

Feb 19-Mar 20

Tough attitude will create more differ-

ences with someone who was tooclose at one time. You may visit or call

an government agency frequently toget an important job done. Money will

go on adding more beautiful items inthe house. Tension will reduce a lot at

work and all previous uncertainty willgo away.

Strong Venus in seventh will bring many

opportunities to make extra money to

your doorsteps. Your offer will be se-

lected among many competitors and the

contract is on its way to you. You may

invite few close relatives at your place

this week. Some of you will be spend-

ing time away from home for business

purpose during the week.

Strong Venus should bring some posi-

tive activities in career. You will be tak-

ing a trip to an interesting place this

week by yourself. Someone will moti-

vate you to aim high and a s a result

you will make few phone calls and put

some people to work on your new

ideas. Money wise you will continue

to do better.

Financial pressure will go away but

only after meeting your commitments.

Expect some improvement in relation-

ship as well as on career front. You

may pan an outing with one of the col-

league at work. There will be some

last minute change in travel plans. A

distant relative will call and seek your

help. A big check coming via mail.

This is the right time to launch your

project. Right help is within your reach.

You will be associated with very bright

people. You have big chunk of money

coming your way. You may go out and

buy some cloths for yourself too. With

diplomacy you will overcome many

hurdles. Idea of taking a short trip over-

seas will cross your mind.

With cool mind you will take better and

rational decisions. Some one you kicked

out of your life will try to make peace

but you will completely ignore him. The

choice of right words only in the letter

will be enough to get the job done

quickly. You will meet your commitments

and still have some left. A long distance

trip is in the air.

Trip will be fruitful and the new con-

tacts will take you closer to goals. If

were waiting for any clearance from

a government agency, it could come

this week. You may also receive a

small check from insurance too. Ne-

gotiations will save you close to thou-

sand dollars in a year. You may make

money through stocks also.

Do not open up so quickly with the

people you recently met or will regret

soon. Financial juggling will save

money in short as well as long term.

Large gains possible from overseas.

You may finally get that big contract

this week. Spouse will support your

ideas and encourage you. You will call

a close relative living in another state.

Opponents will not sit quit so be care-

ful and take extra precaution. Money

will come and disappear very fast.

Chances of an addition in the family

are very strong for next few weeks.

Spouse will have total different views

about career change at this point. You

will spend some money on repairs to

your car or may purchase another one.

India Post March 5, 2010www.indiapost.com22

Sports Track SPORTS'Prayers of the people have

helped my career'Sachin Tendulkar's world

record double hundred wasyet another landmark for

the champion in a career of milesand milestones.

The pavilion at the Roop SinghStadium here will be named afterhim. A road in the city will alsobear the maestro's name shortly.

"I need the good wishes of thepeople. If somebody gives me anaward, I would have to respect thesentiments behind it. It is theprayers of the people that hashelped me in my career," he said.

Tendulkar added, "I do notplay for records. I enjoy my cricketand I play with passion. I havedone this for 20 years." The leg-end said he had struck a purplepatch since the 2007 World Cup.

Asked about his record-break-ing double hundred, he said, "Irealised I had a chance when I gotto 180 with so many overs left."

On being at 199 at the start ofthe final over, he said, "I knew Iwould get my chance in the over. Iwill remember this innings. But I willnot compare it with my other efforts.Each innings is different, the circum-stances are different. No record isunbreakable. But I would be happyif an Indian breaks my record. "

He gave credit to Dinesh Karthik,Yusuf Pathan and Mahendra SinghDhoni for their efforts. "Yusuf andDhoni, in particular, played somevery big shots."

Tendulkar said coach GaryKirsten had held the side to-gether. "We have been bondingvery well and there is great spiritwithin the side," he said.

South African captain JacquesKallis said, "Tendulkar took fulladvantage of the conditions. Hegot to his double hundred with-out slogging and did so with au-thentic cricket shots. A lot canbe learnt from that." -PTI

Better than even Bradman: Nasser Hussain

Sachin Tendulkar raises his hat and helmet to celebrate scoring a world record breaking double century (200 runs)

during the second ODI cricket match at the Captain Roop Singh Stadium in Gwalior on February 24

Sachin Tendulkar drives on his way to world record double century

LONDON: Former England cap-tain Nasser Hussain is convinced thatSachin Tendulkar is the greatest bats-man the game has ever seen, betterthan even the iconic Don Bradman.

"I have never liked compari-

sons between great players, butafter Wednesday's incrediblegame it must be said SachinTendulkar is the greatest batsmanof all time," Hussain wrote in hiscolumn for 'The Daily Mail'.

Tendulkar became the firstbatsman to crack a double cen-tury in the four-decade-long his-tory of one day cricket againstSouth Africa and Hussain feltthat should settle the debate onwho is the greatest batsman ever.

"Better than Brian Lara andRicky Ponting, the other two greatplayers of my era. Better than SirViv Richards, Sunil Gavaskar andAllan Border. And I would evensay better than Sir Don Bradmanhimself," wrote the Chennai-bornEnglish cricketer of Indian origin.

Hussain said Tendulkar hassomehow managed to retain hisearly enthusiasm even after twodecades of international cricketwhich he found incredible. -PTI

Indian media hails'God' SachinTendulkar

NEW DELHI: Indian medialined up to shower the "God"Sachin Tendulkar with front-pagetributes and predict the record-shattering batsman was not fin-ished yet.

Tendulkar, who turns 37 inApril, smashed the first-everdouble century in One-Day Inter-national, pounding the South Af-rican bowlers with 25 boundariesand three sixes.

It was the latest achievementby the world's most prolific bats-man, who has scored more runsand centuries than anyone in bothTest and One-day cricket.

Tendulkar's landmark dominatedthe front pages of leading newspa-pers, even overshadowing the In-dia-Pakistan diplomatic talks.

"Immortal at 200", screamed abanner headline in the Times ofIndia, while the Indian Express rana half-page photo of a celebratingTendulkar with the word "God!"

A similar front-page photo inthe Hindustan Times, headlined"200 not out", was followed byan appreciation by Tendulkar'sformer team-mate and bowlinggreat Anil Kumble.

"The way he celebrated whenhe reached his 200 epitomized theman's persona," Kumble, an ex-India captain, wrote.

Top 10 ODI knocks

Top 10 highest individualknocks in the history ofone day cricket.

200 not out: Sachin Tendulkar(Ind) vs South Africa in Gwalioron February 24, 2010.

194 not out: Charles Coven-try (Zim) vs Bangladesh inBulawayo on August 16, 2009.

194: Saeed Anwar (Pak) vs In-dia in Chennai on May 21, 1997.

189 not out: Viv Richards(WI) vs England in Manches-ter on May 31, 1984.

189: Sanath Jayasuriya (SL)vs India in Sharjah on October29, 2000.

188 not out: Gary Kirsten(SA) vs United Arab Emirates atRawalpindi on February 16, 1996.

186 not out: Sachin Tendulkar(Ind) vs New Zealand inHyderabad on November 8, 1999.

183 not out: MahendraSingh Dhoni (Ind) vs Sri Lankain Jaipur on October 31, 2005.

183: Sourav Ganguly (Ind)vs Sri Lanka at Taunton on May26, 1999.

181 not out: Matthew Hayden(Aus) vs New Zealand inHamilton on February 20, 2007.

181: Viv Richards (WI) vs SriLanka in Karachi on October 13,1987.

'The greatest ever'Sachin Tendulkar is the greatest batsman the game has

ever seen. There is just no question about that. See hisrecord! Who else has got 90-plus centuries, 17000-plus runsin ODIs and 13000-plus runs in Test cricket? He is comfort-ably the greatest batsman ever. He should aim for more. Ithink he should go for a triple century in Test cricket. This issomething he doesn't have but is very capable of. This is wellwithin his reach and he should go for it. He should, may be,look for a Test innings of 450 or an ODI knock of 250. Andthen he himself wants to win next year's World Cup. There isa little boy in Tendulkar who wants to keep playing.

- Sunil Gavaskar

Tendulkar said coachGary Kirsten had heldthe side together. "Wehave been bondingvery well and there isgreat spirit withinthe side

India Post 23March 5, 2010

www.indiapost.com

Sports post

Raj Kishan - rare Indian American athlete


NEW JERSEY: The adage 'Oldis gold' cannot be more apt thanin the case of Raj Kishan, for quiteliterally, this septuagenarian is arare Indian American athlete to winthree gold medals at the last Se-nior Olympics held in WoodbridgeTownship in New Jersey.

Competing in the 75+ age group,

the amazingly fit Kishan made aclean sweep of the gold in the 100meter, 200 meter and 400 meter races.More than 600 athletes participatedin the NJ Senior Olympics.

Last year he was selected torepresent New Jersey in US Se-nior Nationals, which he could nothowever participate in due to fam-ily circumstances.

Born into an agricultural fam-

ily in a village near Chandigarh inIndia Kishan received his educa-tion from Panjab University. Acompetent athlete even then, hewon medals for the University forwhich he was felicitated by LateS.Partap Singh Kairon the thenChief Minister of Panjab. After the

formation of Haryana he repre-sented Haryana in National Ath-letics from 1980 to 1987 and everytime won medals in his pet eventsof High Jump and 110 mts hurdles.

Kishan won two gold medalsin the 2nd Asian Veteran Meet forwhich he was felicitated by formerPrime Minister of India the LateIndira Gandhi.

Later he won medals from In-ternational Veterans Athletics in

Singapore and Hong Kong in theyears 1985 and 1987 respectively.For his outstanding achievementshe was honored by the HaryanaGovernor at a special function inChandigarh at the time.

Kishan's interest in athletics didnot wane with advancing age. Forthe Senior Olympics in the US, hewas the only South Asian to makeinroads into a domain that is domi-

nated by the African American andCaucasian American communities.

Kishan was honored by theMayor of Woodbridge Townshipfollowing his spectacular perfor-mance at the Senior Olympics.

Kishan is the proud of fatherof two sons -- the elder son aMajor in the Indian army, was in-volved in the Kargil war and fightagainst insurgency in Kashmir.

Greatest batsman I have seen: Clarke

WELLINGTON: Australia'sTwenty20 captain Michael Clarkerates Sachin Tendulkar is the bestbatsman he has ever seen and saidhe is not really surprised to seethe iconic Indian smashing thefirst double century in the historyof one-day cricket.

"His record speaks for itself. I

can't say I'm surprised," saidClarke, who is here for Australianteam's tour of New Zealand.

"He's probably the greatestbatsman I've ever seen play, live,"Clarke was quoted as saying bythe Australian Associated Press(AAP).

Tendulkar's unbeaten 200 at

Gwalior was a batting master classthat flattened South Africa andIndia won by 153 runs to take anunassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

"I didn't watch any of it but I'dlike to get back this afternoon andsee some highlights," said Clarke,ahead of Australia's firstTwenty20 match against NewZealand.

Clarke was particularly im-pressed with Tendulkar's longev-ity and said cricket was blessedto have such a genius.

British media heaps praiseon Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar's stupendous feat of becoming thefirst cricketer to score a

double century in one-dayer hasbeen hailed by the British media,which described the little masteras the "finest batsman" ever.

"Tendulkar underlined his sen-sational class with a double cen-tury in Gwalior. To have reached

entire innings," the report read.Meanwhile, The Times tried to

anticipate whether the Indian cancomplete a century of centuriesin international cricket by the endof this year.

"All kneel down and praisewhatever god you fancy for themighty Sachin Tendulkar. Thiscould just be turning into the

"He's a wonderful guy andsomeone I not only enjoy watch-ing on TV, but I've loved havingthe opportunity to play againsthim as well," said Clarke.

"He has got so much class. Hisgreatest strength is the longev-ity, to be able to be so successfulat a young age and to still be do-ing the same thing 20 years on.

"He made his (Test) debut at16 and he's still as good as ever, ifnot better. We're blessed to stillhave such a great player playingthis game," he added.

The cover drive on way to double century such a landmark, with a single inthe final over, only serves to un-derline his class and add to thelegacy that already surrounds ar-guably the finest batsman to haveplayed the game," BBC Sports said.

"His innings, the 46th one-daycentury of his career, was typi-fied by wristy strokes, trademarkboundary shots and, above all,stamina as he batted through the

greatest year of his internationalcareer, more than 20 years after itbegan," the report said.

"Tendulkar now has 93 hun-dreds in international cricket - 47in Tests and 46 in ODIs - which is25 more than the next best man,Ricky Ponting. At the age of 36and in such great form, he couldreach 100 hundreds by the end ofthe year," it added.-PTI

Being congratulated by South African cricketers

Hashim Amla (C) and Alvero Petersen (L)

His greatest strength isthe longevity, to beable to be so success-ful at a young ageand to still be doingthe same thing 20years on

Kishan won two goldmedals in the 2ndAsian Veteran Meet forwhich he wasfelicitated by formerPrime Minister of Indiathe Late Indira Gandhi

24 India Post

6 Karle Mujhse Pyaar - Toh Baat Pakki!

7 Kaise Jiyu - Hide and Seek

8 Sajda - My Name Is Khan

9 Aameen Suma Aameen - Click

10 Tere Bina Jiya Na Jaye - ShaapitMarch 5, 2010www.indiapost.com

1 Tere Naina - My Name Is Khan

2 Cham Cham - Striker

3 Noor E Khuda - My Name Is Khan

4 Neeyat Kharab Hain - Teen Patti

5 Hey Ya! - Karthik Calling Karthik

Here are nine things about Shah Rukh Khan revealed in the documentary called 'Revealed' by SamarKhan:

*When Shah Rukh was conferred a doctorate by a UK university, he broke into a jig in his convocationgown. It was his first co nvocation ceremony because he never attended the one in Jamia Milia Islamia.

*After he finishes working on a film, Shah Rukh takes a three-hour-long shower. He believes that's theway to get the film out of his system completely.

*SRK feels that he has lost touch with his extended family over the last 20 years. He says he's been sobusy that he has not been able to carry out his responsibilities to them.

*Shah Rukh has been having coffee in the same steel mug for the last decade. He takes it with himeverywhere he goes.

*His make-up man hasn't changed in the last two decades. Ravi Dada applied make-up on him for his firstshot in Dil Aashna Hai. He's still around though he could make way soon for his son.

*One of Shah Rukh's favorite games is Trivial Pursuit. The only one to beat him at it, 90 per cent of thetimes, is his daughter, Suhana.

*It's a joke among his friends that his diet includes only protein (since chicken is a part of all his meals),caffeine (from the coffee he is constantly sipping) and nicotine (from the cigarettes he chain smokes).

*Shah Rukh hates being captured on camera while he is eating. That's the only time he doesn't letanyone shoot him.

*He's the official babysitter of his group. When everyone else is partying or holidaying, Shah Rukh isquite happy to sit and play with their children at home. He loves spending time with Aryan, Suhana andtheir friends.


www.indiapost.com

Bollywood

The first love for Shruti Hassan, the daughter oflegendary actor, Kamal Hassan, has always beenmusic though she was liked by the critics for her

beauty and performance in her debut movie 'Luck'.Shruti has given musical scores for many films in-

cluding the Tamil film 'Unnai Pol Oruvan' which had herfather Kamal in the lead role.

Once again she is all set to compose music for an-other South flick with her daddy in the lead role. Thefilm is from the filmmaker K.S Ravikumar titled 'YaavarumKelir'. This is out-an-out commercial flick unlike her pre-vious film which was a thriller.

Thus, Shruti once again dons on her musical caps toimpress her fans with her varied colors and talents.

Aamir vsJaved

It was a meeting meant to sort out the imbro-glio between film producers and lyricists-writ-ers, the latter's forum represented by Javed

Akhtar. But matters took a turn for the worsewhen Aamir Khan, siding with film producers,said lyricists don't really contribute much to theimpact of a song.

It was just too much for poet-lyricist JavedAkhtar to take, and it soon became a war ofwords. Says an eyewitness, "Aamir made it clearthat he felt a song becomes a hit because it ispicturised on a big star. To this Javed asked him,'Your first big song was Papa Kehte Hain. Did itmake you a star or did you make that song run?'"

Things began to get heated, but Aamir stuckto his stand. "When Aamir again insisted thatit's the star who makes a bigger contribution toa song becoming a hit, Javed retorted, 'Your so-called contribution is nothing but interference.We lyricists would be eternally grateful if youkeep your so-called contribution to yourself. Wemanage to do good work not because of, but inspite of your contribution.' But when Aamir wenta step further to claim that in any film, a writercontributes more than a song-writer to the film,it was the last straw for Javed. He said, 'Goodfor Chetan Bhagat'."

An angry Aamir at first resigned from the com-mittee, but has now taken back his resignation.

NewhouseDev Benegal's Road, Movie has found an admirer in Hollywood actor Robert De Niro, who asked for a copy of

the DVD to be sent to him when he met the film's team at the Doha Film Festival in October last year. "Herequested us to provide him with a copy of the film. We were humbled," says actor Satish Kaushik.

De Niro asked that the DVD be sent to his New York apartment. Interestingly, the film's team thought De Niro wasasking for the DVD merely out of courtesy. "But when his business manager reminded us about it again at the Berlin

Film Festival, we were pleasantly surprised.Apart from being a great artiste, he is also a wonderful

human being," says Kaushik.Understandably, Kaushik has been raving about the

Hollywood star ever since. "When I was introduced tohim as a great actor from India, I was completely speech-less. When we shook hands, my hands were frozen... itwas like a dream come true," he says.

De Niro onRoad

Vidya Balan cannot stop raving and admiring about her new fourbedroom flat in Khar in which she has moved last month fromChemboor where she stayed before this. Vidya has special at-

tachment to her house since she has taken personal care and inter-est in making the house stand and now, she plans to throw in ahouse-warming party for her close friends and well-wishers.

Vidya says, "It's virtually been built brick by brick by me inthe middle of my busy schedules. I wasn't able to give thehouse time at a stretch. That's why it took time to be puttogether."

"I think it's imprudent to invite all your friends all at oncefor one party. This makes the gathering unmanageable,

guests who don't know one another get uncomfortable.So I'm having a series of sit-in dinners in my new

house where groups of friends who know one an-other, can come together for cosy comfortable con-

versations and food.""I'm fastidious about cleanliness to the

point of being obsessive about my home.If I feel a drawer is messy, I will clean itup at 3 in the morning after a hard day'sshooting. So before my house-warmingparties start, I need to make sure ev-erything is in place."

www.indiapost.com26 India Post March 5, 2010

Health ScienceHealth Line

Raw milk debate spills across USDES MOINES, Iowa: Debate

about the health attributes andrisks of raw milk is spilling intostatehouses and courtroomsacross the United States as pro-ponents of unpasteurized dairyproducts push to make them easierfor consumers to buy.

Supporters of the raw milk causesay pasteurization, the process ofheating milk to destroy bacteriaand extend shelf life, destroys im-portant nutrients and enzymes.

``We have new science todaythat shows raw milk contains ...enzymes that kill pathogens andstrengthens the immune system,''said Sally Fallon Morell, presidentof the Washington-based WestonA. Price Foundation, a nonprofitgroup pushing for increased ac-cess to raw milk.

Enzymes and other nutrients are``greatly reduced in pasteurizedmilk,'' she said.

Public health officials disagree,saying raw milk carries an in-creased risk for bacterial contami-nation that can lead to illness andeven death.

Free swineflu shots offeredat Dulles

CHANTILLY, Va.: Wonderingwhat to do while you're waiting for aflight at Dulles International Airport?Now, you can get a swine flu shot.

The Virginia Department ofHealth and the Loudoun CountyHealth Department have teamedup with airport officials to give outfree vaccinations against the po-tentially deadly virus.

Health officials say there couldbe another wave of the H1N1, orswine flu, virus, so it would besmart to take advantage of theopportunity. The program startedFeb. 16, and about 200 shots a dayare being given away.

The vaccinations are availablefrom noon to 6 p.m., Mondaythrough Friday, in baggage claimareas six and 13 on the groundfloor. -AP

ship in a cow in return for raw milkfrom the animal.

Retail sales of raw milk is al-lowed in nine states and 19 allowthe sale of raw milk from a farmdirectly to an individual.

Lawmakers in seven stateshave introduced measures thisyear seeking to change laws gov-erning raw milk. The Farmer toConsumer Legal Defense Fund

also has filed lawsuits in five stateschallenging various aspects oflaws regarding raw milk.

The Iowa lawsuit filed lastmonth challenged the state's banon herdshare agreements.

Pete Kennedy, president of theFarmer to Consumer group saidthe state's law contradicts com-mon sense.

``The farmer can drink milk fromcows at the farm, so why can't

More than 1,500 people becameill from drinking raw milk between1993 and 2006, the most recent dataavailable from the Centers for Dis-ease Control and Prevention. Ofthose, 185 were hospitalized andtwo died.

The CDC said not all foodborne illnesses are reported,meaning the actual number islikely higher.

Fallon Morell said there alsohave been illnesses and deathsrelated to pasteurized productsand that linking illnesses to rawmilk is not an accurate assessmentof the nutritional benefits of drink-ing unpasteurized milk.

The sale of raw milk is prohib-ited in 23 states, although sevenof them let people get milk throughso-called herdshare programs, inwhich customers can buy owner-

someone with an ownership or in-terest in that cow drink milk fromthose animals?'' Kennedy said.

Iowa Secretary of AgricultureBill Northey said in a statement thatstate officials ̀ `feel we have actedwithin our authority under Iowacode ... in this situation.''

The issues in other states in-clude testing requirements anddelivery methods for raw milk, andherdshare agreements.

The Iowa legislation, whichdied in a committee, would haveallowed the sale of raw milk from afarmer directly to customers. Sup-porters said they won't give up.

Nick Wallace, a livestock farmernear Keystone, Iowa, said thestate's ban on raw milk sales in-fringe on consumers' rights.

``We feel it's a consumer's rightto put what we want in our bodiesand if we want to contract with afarmer who sells raw milk we shouldbe able to buy it,'' Wallace said.

He said with or without achange in law, people will finda way to get raw milk if theywant it. -AP

New HIV/AIDScases setrecord in ND

GRAND FORKS, ND: The num-ber of new HIV/AIDS cases inNorth Dakota set a record in 2009.

The state Health Departmentsays there were 39 new cases, upfrom 28 in 2008 and 26 in 2007.

The department says 16 of thenew cases last year were diag-nosed in-state, while 23 cases werein people with HIV/AIDS whomoved to North Dakota.

From 1984, near the beginning ofthe AIDS epidemic, through 2009,there have been 480 reported casesof HIV/AIDS in North Dakota.Through last year, 145 people havedied of the disease in the state. -AP

Avandia maker knew of cardiac risksNEW YORK: A Senate report

has said that drug makerGlaxoSmithKline knew of pos-sible heart attack risks tied toAvandia, its diabetes medication,years before such evidence be-came public.

Sen. Max Baucus, chairman ofthe Senate Finance Committee,and Chuck Grassley, thecommittee's ranking Republican,released the report, which followsa two-year inquiry.

They are also asking the U.S.Food and Drug Administrationwhy it allowed a clinical trial ofAvandia to continue even after theagency estimated that the drugcaused 83,000 heart attacks be-tween 1999 and 2007.

In a letter to FDA CommissionerMargaret Hamburg, the senators

said the committee's report wasbased on researchers' studies ofAvandia, internal GlaxoSmithKlinedocuments and FDA documents.They said committee investigatorshad interviewed GlaxoSmithKlineand agency employees as well as

what it called anonymouswhistleblowers.

Based on its knowledge of theheart attack risks, GlaxoSmithKline``had a duty to sufficiently warnpatients and the FDA of its con-cerns in a timely manner,'' the re-port said.

Instead, the company tried todownplay findings that the drugcould increase cardiovascularrisks while also working todownplay findings that a rivalmedication might reduce suchrisks, it said.

GlaxoSmithKline said in a state-ment the drug is safe. It said thecommittee report took data out ofcontext from analyses of Avandia.

In their letter to Hamburg, thesenators said the documents thecommittee reviewed included ananalysis conducted by two safety

officials at the agency. The analy-sis compared Avandia to PfizerInc.'s Actos diabetes drug, andfound that Avandia has an in-creased risk of heart attack andheart failure.

The letter also quoted the re-searchers as saying that said thestudy itself was dangerous, as itmeant patients continued to takethe drug.

FDA spokesman George Straitsaid the FDA is reviewing newdata on Avandia and will presentthose findings to an advisory com-mittee this summer.

``Meanwhile, CommissionerHamburg is reaching out to ensurethat she has a complete under-standing and awareness of all ofthe data and issues concerningthis drug,'' Strait said. -AP

Alaska documentsbig drop in fetalalcohol cases

ANCHORAGE, Alaska: Healthofficials have released new datashowing that Alaska's rate of fetalalcohol syndrome dropped byabout one-third. -AP

Teton Countyhealthiestin Wyoming

JACKSON, Wyo.: A study thatculled information from federaldata says Teton County is thehealthiest county in Wyoming.

The findings were released aspart of a nationwide report by theRobert Wood Johnson Foundationand the University of WisconsinPopulation Health Institute.

Their report includes county-by-county health rankings for all50 states. -AP

The company tried to downplay findings that thedrug could increase cardiovascular risks whilealso working to downplay findings that a rivalmedication might reduce such risks

'We have new science today that shows rawmilk contains ... enzymes that kill pathogensand strengthens the immune system,' said Sally

India Post March 5, 2010Health Science Post28

www.indiapost.com

Exposition reaches out tomobility impaired

SALEM, Ore.: Michael Neherhasn't walked since high school;not since 1981, when he becameparalyzed from the chest down.

`Ì broke my neck playing foot-ball when I was a sophomore,'' saidNeher, who grew up in a Mid- Val-ley grass-seed farming family andattended Central Linn High Schoolin Halsey. ̀ Àbout a year later I wasin an accident ... I fell asleep onCoburg Road South near Eugene.''

The two incidents combinedleft Neher in a wheelchair. It wasfrom that chair that he helpedpeople at the Health and WealthExpo at the Kroc Center.

Neher represents PerformanceMobility Inc., adaptive equipmentspecialists out of Portland. Perfor-mance and R&J Mobility Serviceof Independence were two amongdozens of vendors at the expo.Performance's business is helpingpeople get around. Neher is inti-mately familiar with it.

``Yes, I know this business,''said Neher, 46. `Ì just sort ofstumbled into it.''

The gregarious Portlander en-joys his work for what it allows

him to do help people.`Ì really like helping people,

especially people who are newlyinjured,'' Neher said. ̀ Ì like show-ing them the ropes; showingthem hope.''

That attitude reflected what or-ganizer Byron Loosli and expoplanners sought when putting theshow together, the first of its kind

in the area. Loosli, the communityliaison director for Oregon Para-lyzed Veterans of America, said theevent's ubiquitous tropical themewas part of the positive experienceplanners wanted to achieve.

Maafu Veikune set the mood forpeople walking into the Kroc Cen-ter, strumming his ukulele and sing-ing island-themed songs.

`Ìsn't he wonderful?'' Loosli

asked, marveling at the instantmood conjured by one brawnyPacific Islander and his tinystringed instrument. `À lot ofexpos tend to be medicinal, clini-cal. We wanted wellness andhealth to be emphasized; makepeople feel alive, upbeat tropical.''

The tropical theme was every-where as nearly all vendor repre-sentatives wore leis, and manyexhibits were festooned in cheerytropical decor, which was rein-forced by a sunny clear day.

``This (theme) leads you intohoping for spring soon,'' saidTheresa Green of The Joys of Liv-ing Assistance Dogs. `Ànd withthis weather, it sure feels like it.''

Joys of Living, based in Keizer,was among the many vendors.The diverse range included Well-spring Center for ExtraordinaryLiving from Woodburn, theAlzheimer's Network, Salem-KeizerTransit, Brownell Photo and Video,Costco, Senior Helpers, MarquisSpas and Willamette FinancialGroup, to name a few. There werealso a series of motivational speak-ers throughout the day. -AP

Close call for New York mantrapped in garbage compactor

FARMINGTON, NY: Sur-geons almost had to amputatethe arm of New York man to freehim from the grip of a garbagetruck compactor.

The 49-year-old Geneva manwas trapped for three hours whenhis arm became wedged in thecompactor's steel jaws.

For a time, things looked sogrim that two trauma surgeons andan anesthesiologist were flown tothe accident scene in Farmingtonfor a possible amputation.

Rescuers were finally able tofree the man using cutting torches.

The victim was being treated ata hospital in Rochester. -AP

Respiratory virus hits youngchildren in Arizona

PHOENIX: Hundreds of smallchildren throughout Arizona arebeing hospitalized with the po-tentially life-threatening respira-tory syncytial virus, which typi-cally spikes this time of year.

Some 1,302 cases have beenreported this year - 64 percent inthe past three weeks.

Phoenix Children's Hospitaladmitted 38 babies and tod-dlers with RSV in one 24-hourperiod.

Arizona Children's Hospitalon the Maricopa Medical Center

campus in Phoenix reports 60percent of its pediatric beds filledwith children with RSV.

RSV doesn't cause seriousproblems for older children andadults, but it can cause life-threat-ening respiratory infections insome infants.

For children under a year, it'sthe most common cause of pneu-monia and an inflammation of thesmall airways.

Arizona typically has 1,900 to2,900 laboratory-confirmed RSVcases each year. -AP

'I really like helpingpeople, especiallypeople who arenewly injured,' Nehersaid. 'I like showingthem the ropes'

March 5, 201029 India Post www.indiapost.com

There is something special about Ooty. The lush veg-etation and the lavender-blue sheen of the mountainsoffer a promise of a summer of peace.

Couched amidst those gorgeous blue mountains of south-ern India, this erstwhile British township draws tourists, ad-venture enthusiasts, honeymooners and the film industry likebees to nectar. Sure, many wise travelers believe that Ooty isa dumpyard, a degraded, over-rated hill station, and so on.Nevertheless, the wiser one will see how Ooty can soothestrung-up nerves and become the backdrop for a wondrousholiday.

Ooty nestles in an amphitheatre created by four majestichills-Doddabetta, Snowdon, Elk Hill and Club Hill. These hillsare part of the Nilgiri ranges that are really the meeting pointfor the Western and the Eastern Ghats. But why the 'blue'mountains-one would naturally wonder at the name. Whenthe lavender-blue flowers of the famous Strobilanthes coverthe hills in floral profusion, it would be time to stop wonder-

ing, for it is these funnel-shaped blossoms that are thereason for the name.

Although signboards all around scream and beg to makepeople call this 36-sq-km hill resortUdhagamandalam, their pleas ob-viously fell on deaf ears. Ooty willalways be Ooty to everyone. Asthe blaze of the afternoon sungives way to a nippy evening, onecan make one's way towards thenearby lake. This part of Ooty wasonce a huge bog with a west-flow-ing stream. In 1824, the lower partof the stream was converted into alake. Though the lake seems ordi-nary enough, what really gets thetourists all excited is the warmthand buzz of activity in the vicinity.

There is a boathouse whererowboats and motorboats can behad on hire. A Tamilnadu TourismDevelopment Corporation ven-ture, it remains open from 8 am to 6pm. Sitting at the edge of the lakeand watching the sun dippingdown to herald darkness, is asoothing experience, to put itlightly.

The beautiful Botanical Gar-dens are, in a word, Ooty's mile-stone. Reaching the sprawlingmaze of greens and blooms, upnortheast of the township, one'sfirst thought is of the incredibleinfluence of British rule in India.

Ooty nestles in an amphitheatrecreated by four majestic hills-Doddabetta, Snowdon, Elk Hilland Club Hill. These hills are partof the Nilgiri ranges that are reallythe meeting point for the Westernand the Eastern Ghats. But whythe 'blue' mountains-onewould naturally wonder atthe name!

Cont’d on page 32

Publicly Acclaimed Top Vegetarian Restaurant Serving

If You are looking For the BEST & the MOST AUTHENTIC VEGETARIANRESTAURANT IN TOWNCome to One and Only One Place

CATERING IS OUR SPECIALITY

TASTE OUR 30 PLUSE MOUTH WATERING DISHES ONCE YOU COMETO US YOU WILL NOT ELSEWHERE THAT IS OUR GUARANTEE

NORTH INDIAN • SOUTH INDIAN • GUJARATI • JAIN DISHES

Tel:(773) 274-58002508 W. Devon Ave.Chicago, IL 60659

E-mail: [email protected] www.aryabhavan.comFax: (773) 262-4465

India Post March 5, 201030 Travel & Hospitality Postwww.indiapost.com

w w w . i n d i a p o s t . c o m

Rural tourism sites to be showcased globallyNEW DELHI: With the aim of promoting

rural tourism in a big way, the governmenthas decided to undertake major initiativesto showcase it in international market.

"We will take initiatives at the Centre tohave better inter-ministerial coordination forpromotion of rural tourism and marketing itboth at domestic and international level,"Union Minister of State for Tourism, Sultan

Ahmed, said.Ahmed was speaking at the inaugura-

tion of the two-day national rural tourismworkshop in Hyderabad.

State governments should also take upthe responsibility for promoting their ruraltourism products individually as the suc-cess of it largely depends on effective mar-keting, he said.

Tourism Ministry has launched morethan 158 rural tourism sites across the coun-try. He said establishment of the linkage withthe travel industry including tour operatorsand travel agents, is a key step in marketingthe rural tourism projects.

This, he said, can be done only by edu-cating the travel trade fraternity on the ruraltourism products and make them confident

in selling it to the consumers.Devesh Chaturvedi, Additional Director

General, Tourism Ministry, said rural tour-ism recognizes the role of women in civilsociety, the primacy of human developmentand preservation of heritage sites.

For the visitor, it adds value through pro-grams in art and craft imparted by skilledlocal artisans. -PTI

Orissa approvesRs 718 cr fortourism

BHUBANESWAR: The OrissaGovernment has approved a five-year prospective plan of Rs 718crore for the development of tour-ism in the state, including employ-ment generation in the sector.

The plan envisages jobs toabout 4.2 lakh people, includingdirect jobs to 1.2 lakh, TourismMinister Debi P Mishra said afterChief Minister Naveen Patnaikapproved the plan.

The amount earmarked wouldbe spent over five years from 2009.The plan was prepared last yearand some projects taken up lastyear were brought under it.

As the rate of foreign touristflow was low, the state governmenthad decided to launch its cam-paign in international media in a

bid to attract foreigners, Mishrasaid.

Of the 69.1 lakh tourist arrivalin the state last year, the ratio offoreign tourists was only one percent, he said adding that effortswere on to woo them by develop-ing beach tourism, eco-tourism,rural tourism and Buddhist tour-ism.

Besides, the plan also includedestablishment of an InternationalBuddhist Conclave and OrissaTravel Mart. The government wasalso planning to introduce houseboats and boating facilities inChilika Lake and Hirakud reservoir,he said.

The state has set a target of onecrore tourist arrival by 2014. -PTI

Of the 69.1 lakh touristarrival in the state lastyear, the ratio of for-eign tourists was onlyone per cent, he saidadding that effortswere on to woo themby developing beachtourism, eco-tourism,rural tourism andBuddhist tourism

India PostMarch 5, 2010 31Travel & Hospitality Postwww.indiapost.com

Post LTTE, tourism gets aboost in Sri Lanka

COLOMBO: Largely aided by asurge in visitors from India, thenumber of tourist arrivals in SriLanka has increased by 30 percent, months after the defeat of theLTTE, even as people visiting theonce restive northern province hasrecorded a remarkable increase.

The number of tourist arrivalsin Sri Lanka went up 31.9 per centto 50,757 in January 2010, com-pared to January 2009 accordingto figures released by Sri LankaTourism Development Authority.

This was large aided by a surgein visitors from India, up 73.5 percent to 9,141, following promotionsin the sub-continent by the SriLanka tourism authority.

The increase in Indian touristsis attributed to the simplified visapolicies for people coming from theneighboring country.

Sri Lanka provides visas on ar-rival to tourists from India, whichhas become the main tourist gen-erating market for Sri Lanka since2008.

According to the Secretary inthe Sri Lankan Ministry of Tour-ism George Michael, there is amarked increase in the number oftourists arriving from Europeancountries such as the United King-dom, Germany, France and Italy.

The number of local and foreigntourists visiting the Northern Prov-ince has recorded a remarkable in-crease.

Nearly 5,50,000 local and for-eign tourists have toured Jaffna viaA-9 road (that was opened in Janu-ary this year) during last week, theMinistry of Tourism said.

The Tourism Development Au-thority said that there has been a

25 per cent rise in tourist arrivalsfrom the UK since the end of thecivil war.

Figures also show that touristarrivals in Sri Lanka rose by nearly32 per cent in January.

Sanjika Perera, Director of thecountry's Tourist Board operationin the UK and Ireland said the first

winter season since the end of thecivil war has seen a huge increasein the interest in Sri Lanka.

Perera pointed out that the vastmajority of the tourists from theUK have been arriving fromLondon's two major airports;Heathrow and Gatwick though aconsiderable number have arrivedfrom Manchester.

He said "there does not seemto be any impact" by the "boycottSri Lanka" campaign unsuccess-fully carried-out by sections of theTamil Diaspora in England.

The Sri Lankan Governmentsaid that the increasing demandfrom the UK has been facilitatedby the relaxation of the Foreign andCommonwealth Office Travel ad-visory.

Besides the major tourist attrac-tions, such as Yala National Parkand Arugam Bay, which wereclosed due to security reasons foryears during the conflict has nowreopened.

There was also an increase inthe number of Asian tourists ar-riving from countries such as Ja-pan, India and Malaysia, he ob-served.

Statistics said that in Januaryalone, 50,757 tourists visited thecountry which is a healthy im-provement compared to only447,890 tourists who visited thecountry during the whole of lastyear. -PTI

According to theSecretary in the SriLankan Ministry ofTourism GeorgeMichael, there is amarked increase inthe number of touristsarriving from Euro-pean countries such asthe United Kingdom,Germany, Franceand Italy

March 5, 2010Travel & Hospitality Postwww.indiapost.com

ww

w.in

dia

po

st.c

om

India Post32

And these images, reminiscent of theRaj, were all over Ooty. Not surprising, con-sidering that the hill resort as we know itnow was founded by the British, in theearly 1800s, to serve as the MadrasGovernment's summer headquarters. TheBotanical Gardens of Ooty, established in1847, are much like the typical, manicuredand planned gardens one sees so often.But the real beauty of the place is itsplants - an amazingly diverse array withtrees, shrubs and herbs of a mind-bog-gling number of species. And the flowerswere really something to write home about.

The great charm of Ooty is not so muchthe specific tourist destination; it is, infact, the long lovely walks that it offers.Anywhere you go, the serenity of theNilgiris will be all around you. Speciallythe strategic points from where one couldeither see Ooty or the view all around,like Snowdon, Ketty Valley, the WenlockDowns and, of course, Doddabetta. Fur-ther, one could hire a horse either near theboathouse or at the Savoy-for a slightlymore exhilarating excursion in and aroundtown.

Ooty is a haven for the seeker of sports,adventure or otherwise - from hiking andriding to fishing for trout and playing ten-nis and snooker. Then, of course, there isthe gorgeously scenic golf course tuckedaway in the northwest almost straight acrosstown from the Gardens. Many avid golfersbelieve that the links of the Ooty GymkhanaClub are among the best in the world. Thenthere is the Race Course, in the heart oftown.

Tourist attractions:

Ooty: Long lovely walks amid serenity of NilgirisAll along the hill slopes in the Nilgiri

Mountains, you will find that omnipresent,glossy, stout bush with fragrant white orpink flowers and a melodious name camellia(Camellia thea).

Tea, brought to the Nilgiris in the 1860s,is amongst India's most prominent planta-tion crops, what with the country being theworld's largest producer, consumer and ex-porter of black tea. This is perhaps why theslopes of the Nilgiris, all round Ooty,

Coonoor and the like, seem to have teabushes almost like a second skin.

Excursions information:Ooty has the singular distinction of hav-

ing many places around that are worthy ofa visit, or sometimes even a halt. Headingeast from the southeast of Ooty will takeone to Coonoor and Wellington, two verybeautiful townships. Coonoor, thoughsmall, had much to boast of Sim's Park,Lamb's Rock, Dolphin's Nose and generallypretty landscape.

Wellington, of course, is a typical armytownship, clean and smart. Coonoor mayeasily charm one enough to stay longer,with its lush, tea bush slopes and attractiveBritish houses.

The famous Mudumalai Wildlife Sanc-tuary, 67 km from Ooty, stretches over 321sq km. Traveling to Ooty from Mysore andBangalore, one passes the sanctuary withits dense vegetation crowding the banks ofthe lovely Mayar River.

Avalanche, Upper Bhavani, Mukurti andPykara are all places that are near Ooty andmust be seen for their scenery. The reser-voirs at Avalanche and Upper Bhavani areexcellent waters for angling with the rain-

bow trout in particular abundance. All theseplaces have an attractive mixed landscapeof forests, shola-grasslands and tea-filledslopes.

Finally, for the scientifically curious, enroute to Avalanche from Ooty is India's larg-est radio telescope. So also the HindustanPhoto Films in the Wenlock Downs, the onlyfactory of its kind in India, manufacturingsensitized photographic materials.

The Narrow Trail: This is a journey no-body should miss. A journey where you

jostle with unimaginable crowds andsqueeze into tiny coaches, a journey whereyou feel you can actually reach out andtouch the elusive Nilgiris. It starts atMettupalayam, 46 km southeast of Ooty,where you board the Blue Mountain Expressthat gets pushed by an engine instead ofbeing pulled!

When you hear frequent references tothe Ooty mountain train, you would some-how conjure up Lilliputian images of peoplesitting in orderly, storybook fashion. That'ssure mistake, for this small train of the Nilgiriscouldn't be more full, with human formsoozing from every pore! And if you still har-bor rosy images, try clambering on fromCoonoor where it stops en route toMettupalayam. This is a precious travel tip,mind you.

Best time to visit: June to Septemberand October to December

How to reach:Rail: Nearest broad gauge railway head

is Mettupalayam (46 kms). Majorbroadgauge railway junction is Coimbatore.It is connected with all major cities.

Air: The nearest airport is in Coimbatore,100 km away. You can catch a direct flight toCoimbatore from Chennai, Kozhikode, Ban-galore and Mumbai.

Road: There is a regular bus service fromBangalore, Mysore, Coimbatore, Calicut,Kanyakumari, Thanjavur, Tirupathi andCochin. Buses ply regularly to MudhumalaiWildlife Sanctuary, Kotagiri, Coonoor andDoddabeta.


The great charm of Ooty is not so much the specific touristdestination; it is, in fact, the long lovely walks that it offers.Anywhere you go, the serenity of the Nilgiris will be all aroundyou. Specially the strategic points from where one couldeither see Ooty or the view all around, like Snowdon, KettyValley, the Wenlock Downs and, of course, Doddabetta

NATRAJ TRAVEL INCwww.natrajtravel.com

773-509-1300email : [email protected]

AIR : CRUISES :VACATIONS : ONE SITE

2240-42 West Devon Chicago IL 60659

Ph# 773-338-4080 Fax# 773-338-4088

DEVON LOCATIONSTRICTLY VEGETARIAN

ENJOY SPECIAL NON-VEGITEMS AT SCHAUMBURG

SCHAUMBURG EXCLUSIVE

LUNCH BUFFET 7 DAYS AWEEK

SOUTH INDIAN CUISINE

��

OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK11:30 AM TO 10:00 PM

SCHAUMBURG:

730 SCHAUMBURG RD.

SCHAUMBURG IL60194

(847) 884 9510

CHICAGO:

2543 W. DEVON AVENUE

CHICAGO IL 60659

(773) 338-2152

WASHINGTON D.C.:

1329 UNIVERSITY BLVD. EAST

TACOMA PARK MD 20783

(301) 434-1531

10635 Page Ave., St. Louis, MO 63132

Tel: (314) 423-9990 or (800) 55 SEEMA Fax: (314) 423-0391

SEEMA WORLD TRAVEL, INC.One of the Oldest Travel Agencies in St. Louis

Competitive Rates & Confirmed Seats for

All Major Airlines

FOR ALL YOUR

TRAVEL NEEDS

Sita Ram Patel

INTERNATIONAL DOMESTIC

@ 847-568-0535

AIR INDIA AND ALLOTHER MAJOR

AIRLINES.PACKAGE DEALTAJ TOUR-SOTC

CALL:

2600 W. Peterson Ave.,Suite 105 Chicago IL 60659

Experienced TravelConsultants

Pasport and Visa Servicesavailable

* Confirmed seats(Even in High season)

* Low Airfares* Courteous Service

Call and Contact

MATCHLESSEXPRESS TOURS

Tel. (773) 338 6260

AIRWING TRAVELS INC.New York(Hicksville)

New Jersey(Iselin)Est. 1991

Tel: (516) 931 4600 Toll Free: (866) 532 3413 Tel: (732) 658 5450

Lowest Fares / Confirmed Seats to INDIA &Other Destinations Worldwide

Save upto 40% on First and Business ClassOPEN 7 DAYS - CCall or Email : [email protected]

www.indiapost .com

NEWSat your

India Post 33March 5, 2010www.indiapost.com

www.indiapost.com

N E W Son your desktop

HARI WORLDCONSOLIDATOR OF ALL MAJOR

AIRLINES SINCE 1968

T R AT R AT R AT R AT R A V E LV E LV E LV E LV E L

INDIAN SUB CONTINENT, EUROPE, AFRICAFOR LOWEST FARES AND RELIABLE SERVICE TO

Call us at: 773-381-55556346 N. WASHTENAW, CHICAGO, IL 60659

Tel: 773-728-9071 773-315-8597

SPECIAL LOW FARES TO BOMBAY, DELHI, MADRAS,CALCUTTA, DHAKA, KARACHI, LAHORE etc.

CONSOLIDATORS (INTL. & DOMESTIC)

SKY WORLD TRAVEL 1-888-695-0005

E-mail us at: [email protected]

A I R T R A V E L T O U R . V A C A T I O N S . C R U I S E

1-800-900-UFLY india.pakistan\SINCE 1989 2550 W.Peterson Ave Chicago 773-274-3960 e.mail [email protected]


1-800-900-UFLY. Around the worldSINCE 1989 2550 W.Peterson Ave Chicago 773-274-3960 e.mail [email protected]


1-800-900-UFLY (8359) SINCE 1989 2550 W.Peterson Ave Chicago 773-274-3960 e.mail GLEN [email protected]

ALL AIRLINES AGENCY- NAPERVILLE, IL1355 S. Rt. 59, Suite 202 B, Naperville, IL 60564

Special Fares to India as low as $475RT

(Taxes & Restrictions apply) (Limited Seats)We beat International Fares offered by Airline Websites!

Affordable Business Class Fares along with Flat-bed Comfort!! India to USA fares also available !! Email: [email protected]: 630.692.1777 Emergency: 630.205.4049 Fax: 630.692.1900

Complimentary Limousine!! (For Business Class)

India Post34www.indiapost.com

March 5, 2010

www.indiapost.com March 5, 201035 India Post

PREM KISHORE

LOS ANGELES: Sounds of LA, an annual concert series pro-duced by the J Paul Getty Museum celebrates the work of mas-ter artists as well as up and coming musicians. On February13, 14, the Getty Museum presented the accomplished, excit-ing, innovative Bharata Natyam dancer Mythili Prakash

and Company.Mythili Prakash is a compelling Bharata Natyam dancer

in the United States and in India. She draws on deeprooted traditions with all its beauty and complexity

and takes a soul searching approach to ancientlyrics and style that successfully integrates

melodies, rhythms, and movement to makeit an exhilarating and moving experience.

Mythili has the gift of reaching out to awide international audience whethershe is performing an exquisite padamor dazzling footwork. She is quicklyearning recognition as one of

graphed. She selected poetry by Harikesa Muthiah Bhagirathi (20thcentury) Palai Patiya Perunkatunko (Sangam poetry from 100 BC TOad 200) and songs sung in Telugu, Tamil, Urdu, Hindi - manysplendored exploration of the moods of Bharata Natyam and compo-sitions. Mythili took us on a metaphorical journey of dance andmusic to describe the varying emotions in relation to seasons ofspring, summer, autumn and winter.

Mythili has a distinctive style and rare emotional depth showingnew insights, subtly or otherwise, oftentimes pushing the bound-aries of classical with an aching sensuality and intense energy.Trained by her mother the accomplished, renowned, dancer VijiPrakash, she has shaped her art over the years infusing youthfulgrace with the essence of spirituality and myriad classical traditions.Viji herself was brilliant in the nattuvangam, vocal recitation.

Bharata Natyam's most important artists. There is an elegant stagepresence, theatrical and expressive delineation of emotion as shecreates a context with wide ranging possibilities in interpretation.

Take Rithu Varna/Seasons of Love which Mythili choreo-

Mythili has a thorough knowledge of music. She says, "Musi-cians have to do more than provide accompaniment; for their col-laboration to work, both parties must be on equal footing."

Cont’d on page 37

Miss Asia USA bridges cultural relationshipsIn its continuing effort to

strengthen cultural relationships amongst many of the

various Asian communities inAmerica, the Miss Asia USA or-ganization participates in an ex-citing variety of cultural celebra-tions. Recent collaborative ef-forts include the following highlyattended events.

The National Costume Fash-ion Show for Saigon TV, pro-duced and aired in celebration ofthe Vietnamese New Year, pre-sented a dazzling showcase oftraditional costumes which in-cluded twenty of the Miss Asia2010 delegates gracing the stagein National Costume dress. Thecostumes, rich in color and tradi-tion, were applauded with delightas the ladies supported the cel-ebration with characteristic poiseand beauty. Mayor Margie Reese

produced by Indonesian Media wasjoyously attended by a broad rangeof Asian and cross cultural peopleimpressed with the delegate's showof traditional costumes.

Reigning queens Mrs. AsiaUSA Kimberly Vodang, and FirstRunner Up Elizabeth Yang alongwith 2010 delegates representingRussia and Armenia also joinedin the Chinese New Year of theTiger celebration by participatingin the Golden Dragon parade in

Downtown Los Angeles on Feb-ruary 20.

On the same day the Queensand delegates went on to the larg-est Persian TV network TapeshTV to do a full hour interview withJimmy Sedji. The delegates wereindividually interviewed abouttheir goals, their passion as cul-tural ambassadors and their as-piration of becoming the nextMiss Asia USA.

The organization continuesits quest to bridge Asian com-munities with current prepara-tions for several major PersianNew Year events. Delegates planto share their costumes, poise,friendship, and joy in this com-ing month of March.

Miss Asia USA and Mrs. AsiaUSA are now accepting applica-tions to participate in the pag-eant set for Saturday, August 21.

of Westminster and over 800 otherattendees enjoyed the show heldat the Rose Theatre in the city ofWestminster, Orange County.

The Tet Festival VietnameseParade celebrated on February13th provided another opportunityfor cultural celebration and ex-change within the Asian commu-nities. Miss Asia USA and Mrs.

Asia USA delegates also partici-pated in this Orange County eventwhich is one of the largest South-ern California parades. Bridgingcultural relationships continuedwith the annual Indonesian Faircelebration on February 20thwhere the Miss Asia USA 2010delegates performed their NationalCostume Fashion Show. The fair

Mythili has a distinctive style and rare emo-tional depth showing new insights, subtly orotherwise, oftentimes pushing the bound-aries of classical with an aching sensuality

Reigning queens Mrs.Asia USA KimberlyVodang, and FirstRunner Up ElizabethYang also joined in theChinese New Year ofthe Tiger celebration

March 5, 2010India Post

www.indiapost.com

36

Naeem Khan makes a splash in NY

Designer Naeem Khan greeted by his friends after the Fall 2010 Collection

during Mercedes -Benz New York Fashion Week on Feb 18. , Bombay

born Naeem Khan recently designed First Lady Michelle Obama's dress for

the State dinner in honor of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

Naeem Khan showcasing his Fall 2010 Collection (above and below) during Mercedes -Benz

New York Fashion Week on February 18

All pics by Mohammed Jaffer-SnapsIndia

IAAC Fashion Show to feature 10 global designersIndia Post News Service

NEW YORK: The Indo-Ameri-can Arts Council (IAAC) in part-nership with Misha Nicole is pre-senting Global Runway's NightOut, a fashion event on April 15 atNew York's hip boutique hotel, theParamount. This one-of-a-kindstar-studded fashion show bringstogether on one stage, 10 globaldesigners showcasing their latestcollections - right off the runway.They include Naeem Khan, PadmaLakshmi, Amrita Singh, Ports 1961,White + Warren, Sachin + Babi,Réva Mivasagar, Payal Singhal,Shekhar Rahate and Stephanie

Singh. The Paramount Hotel andPeepul PR are co-organizers of theevening.

The exciting roster for the fash-ion show includes a mix of promi-nent US and international design-ers with glittering fan bases of ce-lebrities and fashionistas. Playingoff cultural influences and a richheritage, these designers haveunique individual visions butshare a global sensibility in pre-senting their creations.

Through her collaboration withinnovators in fashion and her de-votion to the beauty of fine clas-sical design, Amrita Singh contin-ues to design intriguing and com-

plex jewelry for the modernwoman. Many of the world's moststylish women are devotees to anew name in fashion: Naeem

broidered by hand. MichelleObama wore one of his designs tothe First State Dinner. PadmaLakshmi's vision as a jewelry de-signer is as eclectic as her life andher work. Padma Lakshmi has hada successful career in fashion as amodel for over a decade and iscurrently the host of Bravo'sEmmy nominated Top Chef.

Payal Singhal established herlabel in India in 2000 to fill a nichefor eclectic Indian clothing for girlsher age. Now thanks to a global de-sign sensibility North African-born,Vancouver-bred designer TiaCibani's collections are designed fora fashion consumer with great

taste and a global sensibility.Driven by a whole new generationof global minded women livingwithout borders, Ports 1961 is de-signed to meet the ever accelerat-ing needs of the modern woman.

Réva Mivasagar's work is al-ways inventive yet classic, edgyyet sophisticated, modern andstylized with a hint of vintage. Hejuxtaposes exquisite detail in hiscuts, seam work, and hand embroi-deries against texture, color, andfinally into feminine shapes echo-ing soft fluid bias draped gownsor architectural and sleek lines forthe modern woman.

Khan. His luxurious collectionconsists of impeccably cutdresses, sophisticated gowns andchic cashmere separates - all em- Cont’d on page 37

Amrita Singhcontinues to designintriguing andcomplex jewelry forthe modern woman

March 5, 2010 India Post

www.indiapost.com

37


So the music was lushly lay-ered and the ensemble broughtgreat pleasure to the audience withtheir virtuosity, and individualstrengths. Carnatic music is sci-entific, powerful and deeply spiri-tual and the group consisting ofRoopa Mahadevan and Aditya

Prakash (vocals) PirashannaThevaraja (mridangam) KrishnaKuttykumar (violin) and AshwinKrishnakumar (bansuri) presenteda vivid, collaborative performance-Swaralahari (Cascades ofMelody) a musical piece createdfor this concert. The ensembledrew on the nuances of varied

raagas with improvisations,melody and rhythm to showcasethe skills of the musicians and vo-calists.

It was exhilarating to see youngAditya, Mythili's brother sing witha remarkable finesse and versatil-ity from a diverse repertoire. Hehas been studying vocals for thir-teen years and presenting concertssince he was twelve. Workingwith the maestro Pandit RaviShankar and Anoushka Shankarhe has performed and toured allover the US, Canada and Europe.He is also proficient on themridangam and is learningHindustani vocals from UstaadShujaat Khan while studyingethnomusicology at the Univer-sity of California.

Young Roopa Mahadevan (vo-cals) brought an unusual, ener-getic cadence to the program. Shehas performed in major venues inIndia and North America and is notonly a Bharata dancer but performsR& B, Motown and pop music.She has collected a bachelor's de-gree in biological science, andmaster's degree in psychologyfrom Stanford University.

Mridangam player PirashannaTheravada, a brilliant percussion-ist also has performed extensivelyacross Europe, India, Canada andthe United States. It was a delightto see him perform. AshwinKrishnakumar (bansuri) has givensolo performances in India and theUnited States and gave excellentsupport to the ensemble.

Mythili enchants

Bollywood actors to tour US in new comic playIndia Post News Service

NEW YORK: A comical theatri-cal sketch, The Blue Mug play isset to reshape the experience ofdramatics across the world. Afterscintillating performance in 'WakeUp Sid!' Konkona Sen Sharmacomes on stage in this rib-ticklingcomedy play with Ranvir Shorey,Vinay Pathak, Rajat Kapoor,Sheeba Chadha and MunishBharadwaj. Mediasphere, a lead-ing marketing and event manage-ment firm along with their partnerShailja Productions, chaperonsthis glittering star crew of contem-porary Bollywood actors to theirfirst International Tour in April &May this year, summing up 20shows traversing three countriesafter performances in India.

An experimental productionfrom Mumbai's The Company The-atre, The Blue Mug play, "is a cre-ation of one story of 'The man whomistook his wife for a Hat' by OliverSacks" describes Atul Kumar,

founder and artistic director of thegroup who is at the helm of theproduction. With no written script,no props, no fancy costumes, thislong-running theatre production

creates a laugh riot as the artistsnarrate memories. Atul admits "Itwasn't easy in the beginning tohave them open up to the audi-ence but the actors are my old

friends who have worked with mebefore." The director adds thatslowly the cast learned to playthemselves on stage.

Rajat Kapoor wears many artis-

tic hats - actor, director, model,writer - and has made a mark in

Indian theatre and cinema. InThe Blue Mug play, he goes downthe path of personal memories to

depict the larger canvas of Indianmemory.

One of the finest film actors inIndia with two National Awards forperformances in 'Omkara' and 'Mrand Mrs Iyer', Konkana SenSharma continues to explore the

commercial as well as experimen-tal cinema. She is visibly excitedabout her performance in The BlueMug play. "It is lovely. I havegood fun being on stage," saysKonkona.

Vinay Pathak has never beentypecast into any particular role.Describing his performance in TheBlue Mug he says, "The fact thatwe play our own set of charactersis exciting. I enjoy working in thisplay a great deal. These guys aregreat friends and it has been a lotof fun."

Like Vinay, Ranvir Shorey is amaverick of sorts, and is knownfor a gamut of roles, each removedfrom the other. He feels, "A liveact is a very different medium ascompared to cinema. You face alive audience and do not get theprivilege of another take."

The chemistry between theseactors lends fresh wit to the play,something which is rarely insti-tuted in conventional theatre.

Following its Mumbai premiere,the play will now travel across In-dia, Dubai, Muscat, Brazil, NewYork, Washington, Los Angeles,San Francisco, Atlanta, Chicago,Dallas, Houston, Austin and Ra-leigh until May, 2010.

Twelve Indian films at SanFrancisco Festival


NEW YORK: Twelve Indian orIndia related films will form part of"28th San Francisco InternationalAsian American Film Festival"(SFIAAFF) to be held from March11 to 21.

It will include: Today's Special(David Kaplan), Love Aaj Kal(Imtiaz Ali), Cooking With Stella(Dilip Mehta), Diana (AleemKhan), Scene 32 (ShambhaviKaul), Talentime (Yasmin Ahmad),and Flying (Kirthi Nath). In addi-tion, following Indian or India re-

lated shorts will participate:Narmeen (Dipti Gogna), Clap Clap(Tanuj Chopra), Anjali (MayaAnand), Kavi (Gregg Helvey), andA Day's Work (Rajeev Dassani).

The SFIAAFF, presented byCenter for Asian American Media(CAAM) every March, is claimedto be the nation's largest showcasefor new Asian American and Asianfilms, annually presenting approxi-mately 120 works in San Francisco,Berkeley and San Jose in California(USA) since 1982. Chi-hui Yang isFestival Director while StephenGong is CAAM Executive Director.

Sachin + Babi is a unique blendof classic silhouettes and hip andcool colorways and textures. Thecollection translates as a designercollection, with the same fine fab-rics and finishing that you wouldsee in a luxury collection.

Exotic fabric, intricate detail,ornate colors: these are the ele-ments of a haute couture gown,and designer Shekhar Rahate'scollection of high-class eveningdresses more than encompass thebeauty and elegance of a high-fashion frock creation.

Student designer, StephanieSingh studied fashion design atPhiladelphia University as well as

the American University of Rome.It was at these top universitieswhere she learned design con-cepts and color theories thathelped her create one-of-a-kindcollections for men, women, andchildren. White + Warren startedout 1997 with a mission to makecashmere accessible, affordable,and most importantly, relevant inthis competitive environment.Since then White + Warren hasexpanded well beyond the cash-mere sweater, creating totalknitwear collections featuringhead-to-toe knit dressing, whilecontinuing to refine and improveon the classics and wraps that cre-ated their loyal customer base.

IAAC Fashion Show to feature10 global designers


Ranvir Shorey said,‘A live act is a verydifferent medium ascompared to cin-ema. You face a liveaudience and do notget the privilege ofanother take’

38 India Post March 5, 2010www.indiapost.com

Tech News TechBizBrown on charm offensive to

seek Indian investmentLONDON: Prime Minister Gor-

don Brown went on what is de-scribed as a 'major charm offen-sive' to encourage multinationalcompanies, particularly those inIndia and China, to invest more in

the UK.The Prime Minister was joined

by Lord Davies, Trade minister,and Peter Mandelson, Businesssecretary, at the Global InvestmentConference as he attempted topersuade 250 chief executivesfrom across the world to invest inthe UK rather than in other Euro-

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

pean countries.Several Indian company repre-

sentatives were present for theconference, and their comments onthe benefits of investing in the UKwere widely circulated in press re-

leases issued by the UK Tradeand Investment (UKTI), the gov-ernment organisation that helpsUK-based companies succeed inthe global economy.

Investment from India in-creased by 44 per cent last year,making it the second-biggest in-vestor in the UK, behind the US.

China, which invested in 59 UKprojects last year, is the eighth-biggest investor in the UK.

On average, over 30 companiesper week invest in the UK, official

sources said.Brown used the conference to

promote Britain as the most scien-tifically and technologically ad-vanced country in Europe. -PTI

India, US to strengthen co-operationin Aerospace standards


NEW DELHI: SAE Interna-tional, USA, the largest globalplayer in Aerospace Standardsin the world with over 6800 Aero-space standards to its credit andwith a presence in 97 countries,is seeking to strengthen its tieswith India in the Aerospace seg-ment. Mr Bruce Mahone, Direc-tor - Washington Operations,SAE International has soughtIndian co-operation and inputsin "beginning a dialogue" inevolving Aerospace Standardsand its harmonization with exist-ing standards.

"We seek Indian participationand welcome its inputs in Aero-space standards formulation" hesaid in his presentation duringthe "Interactive Session on USIndia Cooperation in Standards& Conformance in Aerospace" inNew Delhi. Relating the entiretransparent process of Stan-dards formulation in SAE, he pre-

sented his organization as oneof preferred choice because ofits proven track record, interna-tionally accepted standards, highlevel of support and well knownfor its technical competenceadopting a proven consensusprocess with adequate checks

and balances.The program was jointly or-

ganized under the Standards andConformity Assessment Programof American National StandardsInstitute (ANSI), Bureau of In-dian Standards (BIS) and Con-federation of Indian Industry(CII) who already have a tripar-

tite agreement on mutual co-op-eration in the area of Standardsand Conformance. This programwas an effort in the involvementof sectoral agencies in the Stan-dards formulation process.

Others who spoke includedMr Nalin Kohli, Chairman, De-

fense Sub-committee on SME'sand CEO, Terabyte Informaticsand Ms Elise Owen, Represen-tative for China and India Affairs,American National Standards In-stitute (ANSI). Mr Gurpal Singh,Deputy Director General, Con-federation of Indian Industrygave the Welcome Remarks.

Infra sectorgrows by 9.4 pcin January

NEW DELHI: Core infrastruc-ture industries grew by a robust9.4 per cent in January againstmeager 2.2 per cent in the year-ago period reflecting the soundstate of recovery in industrial pro-duction. Six key sectors -- crude,petroleum refinery products, coal,electricity, cement, finished steel -- showed a growth of 5.4 per centin April-January 2009-10 against 3per cent in the same period lastyear, an official statement said.

These sectors have a weight of26.68 per cent in the country's to-tal industrial output.

Finished steel and cement ex-panded by 16.2 per cent and 12.4per cent, respectively in January,against 3.2 per cent and 8.3 per centlast year. Crude oil output, too, reg-istered a significant growth of 9.7per cent in the month under reviewafter contracting by 8.1 per cent inJanuary last year. Petroleum refin-ery products recorded expansionof 3.8 per cent against a dip of 1.3per cent last year. -PTI

Harris bringslatest digital out-of-home

LAS VEGAS: Internationalcommunications and informationtechnology company, Harris Cor-poration is demonstrating latestadvancements made to its compre-hensive digital out-of-home(DOOH) solution at DigitalSignage Expo (DSE) 2010.

"2010 is a foundational year fordigital signage," said DeniseMacDonell, director and generalmanager for digital signage, Har-ris Broadcast Communications."We believe the industry will seesignificant progress made in adver-tising-funded, out-of-home net-work deployments for sports, QSR,retail, transit and other verticals."

"This is largely due to im-proved technology for contenttargeting and placement," addedMacDonell. "Harris digital signagesolutions allow businesses tomerge compelling content withprofitable, scalable out-of-homenetworks that create real revenue-generating opportunities."

DRM technologyat RadioAsia 2010

One of the most eye catchypresentations at the

RadioAsia 2010 conference, held inNew Delhi is the demonstrations ofthe Live broadcast of radio by de-ploying the digital broadcast tech-nology developed by DRM (DigitalRadio Mondiale) Consortium.

DRM Consortium, the principalsponsors for conference, is dem-onstrated the difference that iscreated by digital broadcast overanalogue for the radio medium."DRM is the global digital tech-nology which can convert ana-logue broadcasts to digital thussignificantly improving the audioquality and bringing many otherbenefits to broadcasters and lis-teners through its added features"says the Consortium.

Fujifilm camerasconferred with twoawards

Fujifilm India Pvt. Ltd. has announced receiving two awards

for its compact cameras from oneof the leading magazines on thephotography, Better Photography.

The Fujifilm's FinePix F70EXR,the world's smallest 10x zoom digi-tal camera has bagged the BP Ex-cellence Award for Basic CompactCamera of the Year 2009 whileFujifilm FinePix S200EXR was de-clared the Advanced Camera of theYear 2009.

New full touch dual-SIM from Fly

Adding more to its offerings of the mobile handsets, Fly Mobile hasannounced the launch of its new full-touch dual-SIM phone - LINKZ

(E145). A handset that is stylish in appearance offers an array of multi-media features. According to Fly the handset would be targeted at youthin the age bracket of 18-35 years living in metros and mini metros, whoprefer to chat and network with friends on the go.

This new mobile phone supports the instant messaging and socialnetworking has the multiple award winning Nimbuzz application incor-porated along with support for Skype, Windows Live Messenger (MSN),GTalk, Yahoo!, AIM, MySpace, ICQ, and others.

Investment from India increased by 44 per centlast year, making it the second-biggest investorin the UK, behind the US. China, which investedin 59 UK projects last year, is the eighth-biggestinvestor in the UK

Relating the entire transparent process of Stan-dards formulation in SAE, he presented his orga-nization as one of preferred choice because of itsproven track record, internationally acceptedstandards, high level of support and well knownfor its technical competence

39India PostTechBiz Postwww.indiapost.com

March 5, 2010

ww

w.i

nd

iap

ost

.co

m

UP lifts ban on raw sugar importsLUCKNOW: In a move that

would ease prices of sugar, theUttar Pradesh government haslifted a nearly three- month ban onimport of raw sugar into the state,official sources said.

"Cane Commissioner Sudhir MBobade has written a letter to theRailway Board stating that it cansupply raw sugar in the state," agovernment source said.

About eight lakh tonnes of rawsugar have been lying at variousports across the country follow-ing the UP government's ban inNovember on movement of im-ported raw sugar.

The commissioner in his letterstated that supply of raw sugarwas banned in the state in Novem-ber last year keeping in view thelaw and order situation, sourcessaid.

The ban on raw sugar was im-posed after farmers, who hadlaunched an agitation demandinghigher cane price, attempted totorch consignments of raw sugarat some places in the state.

Refusal by cane farmers to selltheir produce unless they werepaid remunerative prices, coupledwith the ban on raw sugar imports

by UP that hampered sugar pro-duction, late last year fuelled a risein prices of the sweetener thatneared Rs 50 a kg last month.

"The government had earlier

decided that supply of raw sugarwould not be allowed till the timecane crushing was not completedby sugar mills in the state," theysaid. -PTI

Survey hits out at poor foodmanagement policies

NEW DELHI: Concerned overthe sluggish performance of agri-culture sector, the Economic Sur-vey hit at food management poli-cies that have led to very high in-flation and asked the governmentto take serious policy initiativesfor a targeted four per cent farmsector growth.

Pointing out that farm sector,which is still the mainstay of In-dian population, continues to bea cause for concern, the Surveysaid there is a need for seriouspolicy initiatives to reach the fourper cent growth target.

Farm sector growth is estimatedto decline by 0.2 per cent in 2009-10.

"It could be argued that the ex-cessive hype about Kharif cropfailure, not taking into account thecomfortable situation in respect offood crop and the possibility of

an improved rabi crop, may haveexacerbated inflationary expecta-tions encouraging hoarding andresulting in higher inflation in fooditems...

"...in the case of sugar, delay inmarket release of imported rawsugar may have contributed tothe overall uncertainty, therebyallowing prices to rise to unac-ceptably high levels in recentmonths," the Survey, tabled inParliament, said.

It called for reversing the de-cline in private sector investmentin agriculture, saying "consistentdecline in the share of private sec-tor investment in the agriculturesector is a matter of concern."

Although agriculture provideslivelihood to over 60 per cent ofIndia's workforce, it accounts forless than 20 per cent of thecountry's GDP. -PTIFarmers agitate over sugarcane prices in New Delhi last November. The ban

was imposed after farmers attempted to torch consignments of raw

sugar at some places in the state.

40 India Post March 5, 2010www.indiapost.com

In Brief Immigration


WASHINGTON-The US Cen-sus Bureau is missing opportuni-ties to provide reporting instruc-tions to diverse communities inthe United States by failing to fullyutilize the ethnic media that canreach more than 60 million adultsin those communities, accordingto testimony from New AmericaMedia (NAM) in Congress.

Sandy Close, NAM's executivedirector, called the 2010 Censusadvertising program an "unprec-edented investment" in ethnicand community media, havingidentified 3,000 media outletsacross the country.

But she cautioned that manykey media outlets were left out,including 47% of those that at-tended roundtable sessions orga-nized by NAM and the CensusBureau last year to learn howthey could help with the count.She noted that several prominentAfrican American papers had

been excluded."Many are frustrated - they

don't know why they fell throughthe cracks.

Some are bitter. All very ur-gently want a role - even if small -and believe, as I do, that togetherthey can move the needle thoseextra percentage points," saidMs. Close, testifying before theOversight and Government

Reform's Subcommittee on Infor-mation Policy, Census and Na-tional Archives. Her organizationrepresents more than 2,500 eth-nic media outlets across thecountry.

The roundtable discussionsorganized last year included morethan 600 ethnic media represen-tatives in 12 cities from coast to

coast. The ethnic media partici-pating included media giants likeUnivision, Asian language dai-lies, BET and Clear Channel sta-tions to established black andSpanish language weeklies, up-start radio and TV stations, aswell as niche print and online out-lets serving Burmese, Ethiopian,Arab, Russian, Mixtec, Punjabiand Samoan communities.

"Their hunger to participate inthe 2010 Campaign is intense-youcould cut the exuberance at thesegatherings with a knife," Ms.Close testified. "For many me-dia, it was the first time they'dcome together as a media sectorin the same city. They get the Cen-sus: they get their community'sstake in a complete count, and

NAM tells Congress to better utilizeethnic media for Census

Va. program IDsmore than 600illegal immigrants

FAIRFAX, Va.: Fairfax Countyhas identified more than 600 ille-gal immigrants over the past yearusing a jail fingerprinting program.

The county checks the finger-prints of anyone processed at thejail against an immigration data-base to see if officials have notedthey should be deported. The Se-cure Communities program found619 inmates with matches in 2009.Another 474 illegal immigrant in-mates were identified in other ways.About a third have been deported;the remainder are in immigrationproceedings or serving sentences.

Fairfax County was among thefirst of about 100 jurisdictions na-tionwide to participate in the pro-gram which the Obama adminis-tration plans to expand to thenation's some 3,100 local jails by2013. -AP

Tips on filing immigrant petition for alien workerCYRUS D. MEHTA

On January 21, 2010, U.S.Citizenship and Immigration Services

(USCIS) released a Q&A onways to ensure that an ImmigrantPetition for Alien Worker (FormI-140) will not be rejected. Sometips include:

• Use the most current editionof the form, although older edi-tions may be accepted.

• Make sure you follow theinstructions carefully regardingwhich location to file your I-140petition.

• Select only one visa prefer-ence category in Part 2 of the I-140. (USCIS will reject the I-140petition if Part 2 is left blank or ifmore than one visa preferencecategory is selected in Part 2.)

• Respond to all questionsand provide information in all ofthe "answer" and "check"boxes. Write "none" or "n/a" inan answer box if a question doesnot apply to you.

• Print or type information us-

Entry of Appearance as Attorneyor Representative, if applicable(with original signatures of boththe representative and the appli-cant or petitioner).

• For petitions that are filedelectronically, send the support-ing documentation to the addressidentified in the directions for e-filing. Do not submit any otherpaper-filed applications or peti-

tions with the supporting docu-mentation for the electronicallyfiled I-140.

Other questions and answersinclude what to do if an incorrectvisa category is selected in Part 2;what to do if the petitioner wantsto request consideration of mul-tiple visa categories on behalf of aworker; how to file an I-140 that

requires a Department of Labor-approved labor certification; andhow to organize the evidencewith the I-140 petition.

The memo also includes tipsfor various types of I-140s, suchas aliens of extraordinary ability;outstanding professors or re-searchers; multinational execu-tives or managers; aliens of ex-ceptional ability; members of theprofessions holding an ad-vanced degree; and national in-terest waivers.

Among other things, thememo discusses how a succes-sor employer can establish asuccessor-in-interest relation-ship with a predecessor em-ployer in order to use thatemployer's approved labor certi-fication when filing an I-140 onbehalf of the beneficiary namedon the labor certification; andtips on "porting" to a differentemployer if a beneficiary's I-140is still pending.

ing black ink only. Do not "high-light" or "background shade"your entries.

• Make sure the petitionersigns the I-140.

• Include the correct fee speci-fied in the form instructions. If youfile the petition with other relatedapplications for the beneficiary,attach the fee to the petition bypaper clip or staple, and indicate

the name of the applicant on thepayment document (i.e., in thememo field).

• Submit one check per applica-tion. If more than one petition orapplication is filed using a singlecheck, and any of the forms arefound to be improperly filed, allforms will be rejected.

• Submit Form G-28, Notice of Cont’d on page 43

Mexican getsback child inMiss. case

JACKSON, Miss.: A Mexicanimmigrant walked out of the Mis-sissippi Supreme Court holdingthe daughter who had been takenaway from her by state officials in2008 after she was accused of be-ing an unfit mother.

Cirila Balthazar Cruz and her 15-month-old child, Ruby, were sur-rounded by Southern Poverty LawCenter officials as they left thecourt. No one could discuss thecase in detail because all YouthCourt matters are sealed. -AP

they get their own."In citing the importance of an

accurate Census count not onlyon federal dollars, but privateones as well, she noted the ex-perience of Juan Carlos Ramos ofthe El Tiempo Hispanic newspaperin New Orleans. Mr. Ramos said the2000 Census undercounted Hispan-ics in New Orleans and as a resultCoca Cola dropped New Orleans,and his paper, from their nationalad campaign.

Many ethnic media outlets arefrustrated by being excluded fromthe Census advertising. "Fromour first briefing in March of 09until our last one in early Decem-ber, ethnic media attendees alsoexpressed a uniform anxiety overthe lack of transparency in the de-cision making process of the Cen-sus ad buy," Ms. Close said, add-ing that she has received corre-spondence from ethnic mediaoutlets across the country notbeen utilized.

Investigator admitspolice report isinaccurate

CENTENNIAL, Colo.: An inves-tigator says he was told there weretwo people in an SUV that crashedand killed three people, including a3-year-old boy in an ice cream shop,bolstering claims by an illegal im-migrant that he wasn't the driver.

Aurora traffic investigator JohnnyLee testified that a report quoting awitness as saying there was only oneperson in the SUV is inaccurate.

A police officer who testifiedsaid the department is investigat-ing Lee's conduct.

Francis Hernandez faces ve-hicular homicide charges in theSeptember 2008. His defense saysthat police focused on Hernandezand ignored the possibility thatsomeone else may have been driv-ing. Defense attorneys also pinsome of the blame on the driver ofa pickup truck who had metham-phetamine in her system. -AP

Cont’d on page 43

NYC terrorismsuspect pleadsguilty to conspiracy

NEW YORK: Terrorism sus-pect Najibullah Zazi has pleadedguilty in New York City to con-spiracy to use weapons of massdestruction. -AP

She cautioned that many key media outletswere left out, including 47% of those thatattended roundtable sessions organized byNAM and the Census Bureau last year

The memo also includes tips for various types ofI-140s, such as aliens of extraordinary ability;outstanding professors or researchers

India Post 41March 5, 2010 Immigration Post

Cuba blasts US leaders formeeting with dissidents

HAVANA: Cuba scolded a topUS delegation for meeting withpolitical opposition leaders fol-lowing high-level immigration dis-cussions, saying it proves Wash-ington is out to topple thecountry's communist government.

A senior American official de-fended the meeting, saying USpolicy is to reach out to all sectorsof Cuban society not just the com-munist government.

American officials ``called to-gether dozens of their mercenar-ies'' hours after concluding highlyanticipated talks on migration is-sues with Cuban leaders in an un-disclosed Havana location,Cuba's Foreign Ministry said.

Elizardo Sanchez, head of the in-dependent Cuban Commission onHuman Rights and National Recon-ciliation, confirmed that a group ofCuban dissident leaders met withthe US delegation at the residenceof the head of the US Interests Sec-tion, which Washington keeps inHavana because it has no diplomaticrelations with the island.

Such a meeting is not unusualwhen US diplomats visit. But en-raged Cuban leaders say the dis-sidents are not pro-democracy ac-tivists, independent journalistsand organizers of political oppo-sition groups, but paid agents ofWashington planted to destabilizethe island's political system.

In a statement published in theCommunist Party newspaperGranma, the Foreign Ministry saidUS leaders' meeting with dissi-dents was ``contrary to the spiritof cooperation and understandingshowed on Cuba's part'' during theimmigration talks and ``demon-strated anew that (US) priorities are

more related to supporting the coun-terrevolution and the promotion ofsubversion to destabilize the Cu-ban revolution than with the cre-ation of a climate conducive to realsolutions to bilateral problems.''

``From the very day he arrivedin the country, the head of the NorthAmerican delegation was warned''that a visit with dissidents wouldnot be tolerated. The Ministryclaimed that Washington funnelsmore than $20 million to groups thatopenly oppose its government,many based in southern Florida.

When asked why the meetingwith dissidents went ahead de-spite Cuba's explicit request that

it not, a senior State Departmentofficial said the outreach is part ofUS government policy around theworld, not just Cuba.

``We believe in reaching out tobroad sectors of society in allcountries that we deal with ... andwe don't make exceptions in par-ticular countries,'' the official said.

The official, who was not au-thorized to talk publicly about themeeting, spoke on condition ofanonymity.

The official said Washingtonthanked Cuba for allowing Ameri-can relief planes destined for Haitito overfly Cuban territory, and also

expressed a willingness to workwith Cuban doctors on the groundin the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.

The US delegation was headedby Craig Kelly, deputy assistantsecretary of state for WesternHemisphere affairs and the high-est-ranking American official tovisit Cuba in years.

While meeting with their Cubancounterparts, delegation officialsstrayed from the topic of immigra-tion and called for the immediaterelease of an American held in amaximum-security prison withoutcharge for nearly three months.

Cuba alleges Alan P. Gross, whocame to the island as an Americangovernment contractor, is a spywhose arrest is more evidenceWashington is working to toppleits political system. Relatives ofthe 60-year-old Maryland residentmaintain he is a veteran develop-ment worker who was distributingcommunications equipment toCuban Jewish groups.

The State Department officialsaid the US delegation called forGross's ̀ `immediate release'' and cat-egorically denied he was spying.

``We made very clear our posi-tion,'' the official said, adding thatthe Cuban side ̀ `took it on board.''

The official said the US askedCubans to share any evidenceagainst Gross but did not saywhether they complied.

Except for Gross' case and thesubsequent American meeting withdissidents, both sides had offeredrestrained praise for the immigra-tion discussions, which lastedabout five hours. The Cubans saidthe talks were positive and respect-ful, while the US called them part ofa larger, constructive process. -AP

The State Departmentofficial said the USdelegation called forGross's “immediaterelease” andcategorically deniedhe was spying

Immigration Postwww.indiapost.com

March 5, 2010India Post42

Immigrant population decreases in ArizonaPHOENIX: Arizona's undocu-

mented immigrant populationdropped by more than 100,000 in2008, the largest decrease of anystate, but the reasons for the de-cline aren't clear.

Experts agree the flow of newillegal immigrants entering theUnited States is decreasing, butthey don't agree on whether thenumber of immigrants leavinghas risen.

According to newly releasedestimates from the Department ofHomeland Security, Arizona's un-documented immigrant popula-tion fell from 560,000 in January2008 to 460,000 in January 2009 _a drop of 18 percent. Theagency's estimates used immigra-tion, visa and other data on for-eign-born residents.

Experts cite a poor economyand tougher enforcement against

illegal immigration for Arizona'sdecrease.

`Ìt's the economy dropping offmore than anything else, but I thinkenforcement also played a role,''said Erik Lee, associate director ofthe North American Center forTransborder Studies, an ArizonaState University think tank.

Nationally, the undocumentedimmigrant population dropped 7percent over the year, from 11.6million to 10.8 million.

The decrease followed asurge that saw Arizona's undocu-mented population grow by 70percent and the national undocu-mented population grow by 37percent between January 2000and January 2008.

Arizona lost 261,000 jobs _ 9.8percent of the state's work force _during the recession starting inDecember 2007, according to the

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.Construction, manufacturing

and hospitality were especiallyhard hit. Those also are the sec-tors where jobs for immigrants,both legal and illegal, are concen-

trated. The Arizona Department ofCommerce said the constructionindustry lost more than 78,000jobs, a 37 percent drop.

Arizona also cracked down onillegal immigration, including an

employer sanctions law that re-quires employers to use a federalprogram to verify whether newworkers are legally eligible to workin the US.

In addition, the federal govern-ment put thousands of additionalBorder Patrol agents along theU.S.-Mexico border, built hun-dreds of miles of fences and barri-ers and deported thousands of il-legal immigrants.

Jeffrey Passel, a senior demog-rapher at the Washington, DC-based Pew Hispanic Center, saidthere's no evidence the economicdownturn or more enforcementcaused more Mexicans to gohome. Mexicans make up about 60percent of the nation's undocu-mented population and most ofthat population in Arizona.

Passel said, however, there'sstrong evidence to suggest the

number of immigrants coming fromMexico has dropped.

``The current recession hashad a harsh impact on employ-ment of Latino immigrants, rais-ing the question of whether anincreased number of Mexican-born residents are choosing toreturn home. This new HispanicCenter analysis finds no supportfor that hypothesis in govern-ment data from the United Statesor Mexico,'' a July Pew HispanicCenter report said.

The research director at theWashington, DC, Center for Immi-gration Studies, Steven Camarota,agrees that the number of illegalimmigrants from Mexico has plum-meted, but he also believes a grow-ing number of undocumented im-migrants are going home becauseof the economy and immigrationenforcement. -AP

World's refugee orphans seekinghomes in the US

HOLLISTON, Mass.: Hidingfrom merciless militiamen and trek-king through unforgivable moun-tainous terrain, Madhel Majok es-caped the mass slayings and geno-cide of the Sudan that killed his par-ents. The 9-year-old orphan fled toneighboring Kenya, where he thensurvived vigilante shellings on hiscrowded refugee camp.

Majok remained in limbo foreight years while waiting for anycountry to grant him refuge.

Now 17, Majok has foundsafety in a small New England en-clave 30 miles west of Boston. He'sa star soccer player at HollistonHigh School, listens to Tupac andBiggie at his leisure and lives com-fortably in a foster home, thanksto a federal program that matchesrefugee minors with Americanfamilies.

`Ì like it. It's peaceful... quiet,''said Majok, who wears Americanurban-style clothes and stays in ahome with four other refugeeAsian and African children. ̀ `Tookme a long time to get here.''

The US Office of Refugee Re-settlement, which has 700 refugeechildren in foster care, has askedstates to prepare to foster more in-ternational refugee children likeMajok, whose parents either havedisappeared or been killed by waror natural disaster. The need isheightened by continuing armedconflicts in Africa and recent eventssuch as the earthquake in Haiti.

The request means that Mas-sachusetts and other states mustask more households to open uptheir homes for foster care or askexisting foster families to take in

another refugee child at a time ofeconomic downturn.

``Between all the wars going onand all the (human) traffickinglaws that have changed, more chil-dren are needing safe homes,'' saidSherrill Hilliard, the program man-ager for Refugee Immigration &Assistance Program in Washing-ton. `Ànd we're doing our bestto find them.''

Massachusetts, a state thathistorically has taken in one of thelargest shares of the nation's un-accompanied refugee minors, hasbeen asked to increase its current

share of 93 to 125, said RichardChacon, director of the Office forRefugees and Immigrants in Mas-sachusetts.

The U.S. Department of Health& Human Services says 14 statesand the District of Columbia, par-ticipate in the federal Unaccom-panied Refugee Minor Program:Arizona, California, Colorado,Florida, Massachusetts, Michi-gan, Mississippi, New York, NorthDakota, Pennsylvania, Texas,Utah, Virginia and Washington.

It is not the only wayparentless refugee children canfind safe haven in the U.S. The

Obama administration, for example,recently said it will allow orphanedHaitian children to enter the U.S.temporarily on an individual basis.And some groups, like the Heart-land Alliance in Illinois, help unac-companied undocumented chil-dren by providing housing and le-gal representation.

The U.S. program, developed inthe early 1980s to help thousandsof parentless children in SoutheastAsia, has aided more than 13,000refugee children fleeing war, fam-ine and economic turmoil. It re-mains the most consistent sourcefor refugee children in the U.S.,with the assistance of the UnitedNations.

In 2008, foster homes and re-lated facilities in the United Statesand 67 other countries took in16,300 orphans, according to TimIrwin, the spokesman for the U.N.'sHigh Commissioner for Refugees.That's the highest number sincethe agency started keepingrecords, Irwin said.

In the U.S., states license fosterhomes with the help of the LutheranImmigration and Refugee Servicesand the U.S. Conference of Catho-lic Bishops. The federal govern-ment reimburses states for all costsof the children's schooling, healthcare and related expenses.

It's the same federal program thathelped resettle 3,800 ``Lost Boys''from Sudan in the early 2000s.

Cost of care for refugee minorsvaries, depending on need. InMassachusetts, the state Office forRefugees and Immigrants has bud-geted about $3 million to serve 93minors. -AP

Kan. man seeks to dismissgenocide-related chargesWICHITA, Kan.: A Kansas man

accused of participating in the 1994Rwandan genocide claims a USimmigration case against himshould be thrown out because theJustice Department has allowed it-self to be influenced by a Rwandangovernment notorious for its hu-man rights violations.

Lazare Kobagaya, 83, ischarged in federal court in Wichitawith fraud and unlawfully obtain-ing US citizenship in 2006. He hasasked a judge to dismiss the in-dictment against him, based onalleged due process violations inthe ̀ `fundamentally unfair'' inves-tigation and prosecution. The To-peka man contends he cannot geta fair trial because Rwandan wit-nesses are fearful of testifyingtruthfully.

Federal prosecutors disputedKobagaya's claims, arguing incourt documents that Kobagayafailed to identify any wrongdo-ing on the part of the U.S. gov-ernment. Prosecutors also saidthat Rwanda is not influencing thecase and does not control pros-ecution witnesses.

The government has said itsprosecution of Kobagaya is be-lieved to be the first in the UnitedStates involving proof of genocide.His trial is set for Oct. 12. He faceslikely deportation if convicted.

The Justice Department allegesin its 2009 indictment thatKobagaya lied during naturaliza-tion proceedings in Wichita byclaiming he had lived in Burundifrom 1993 to 1995. It contends heconcealed that he had lived inRwanda during the 1994 genocide

and participated in the attacks andslaughter of hundreds of Tutsis.

An estimated 500,000 to 800,000people were killed in Rwanda be-tween April and July 1994 in eth-nic violence.

``While the government maycontend that it is entitled to inves-tigate immigration fraud,'' defenseattorneys argued, ``the heart ofthe investigation is really this: IsMr. Kobagaya a genocidaire?''

Defense attorneys also con-tended in a motion filed last monthseeking to have the indictment dis-missed that prosecution wit-

nesses may not testify truthfullybecause they fear reprisals by theRwandan government when theyreturn to that country. The de-fense noted the defense cannotcompel Rwandan witnesses to tes-tify in US courts.

``Witnesses, although givingstatements privately, cannot be as-sured of their anonymity given theabsence of compulsory processand as a result, they are justly fear-ful of being identified as someonewilling to minimize the genocide ifthey try to exonerate Mr.Kobagaya,'' his defense attorneyswrote. -AP

Experts cite a pooreconomy andtougher enforcementagainst illegalimmigration forArizona's decrease

The US program,developed in the early1980s to help thou-sands of parentlesschildren in SoutheastAsia, has aided morethan 13,000 refugeechildren fleeing war

The government hassaid its prosecutionof Kobagaya isbelieved to be thefirst in the UnitedStates involvingproof of genocide

India Post 43

www.indiapost.com

March 5, 2010 Immigration Post

REFINANCE/PURCHASE5.125% Fixed (5.125% APR)

California Dept. of RE, Broker License# 01236060

0 Point 0 Non-Recurring Cost Program Available

AMERICAN SONA MORTGAGE1-800-671-9534

Call: NEERAJ

95% Financing on Purchases Available

Am

eric

an S

ona

Mor

tgag

e

105% REFINANCING(AVAILABLE IN SOME CASES)

“Rates subject to change with market”

��

��

�� !�"��

��

��

* Cyrus D Mehta, may be contactedat 212-425-0555 or

[email protected]

Moreover, there was also criti-cism that some of the communi-cations vehicles chosen by theCensus Bureau are not having thedesired impact.

She quoted Joe Orozco, ofHoopa Radio in northern Califor-nia, lamenting that the Censusspent the "the biggest chunk ofmoney to reach American Indi-ans" on billboards that don'thave much of an impact on iso-lated reservations like his."Most of us don't do a lot of free-way driving," she quoted Mr.Orozco as saying.

Ms. Close said that hundredsof ethnic media like Hoopa Ra-dio want to inform and mobilizetheir communities to participatein the Census. As the CensusBureau recognizes the regionswith the lowest response rates,she recommended that the gov-ernment fund a program similarto a NAM project launched toreach American Indian and indig-enous communities in California.

The Save our Services cam-paign for Census 2010 replicatesan approach that NAM has pio-

neered through numerous socialmarketing campaigns over thelast decade. It relies upon localethnic media outlets to designtheir own messaging campaignsand earned media components.Under this program, Hoopa Ra-

dio received a small grant of$2,000 that will help pay to de-velop a PSA that will grab listen-ers' attention with a message thatsays: "If we don't let ourselvesbe counted, they'll say no onelives here and take away our wa-ter rights."

Ms. Close cited reasons whythe Census Bureau should uti-

lize the ethnic media more. Shenoted that a survey by San Fran-cisco State's Renaissance Cen-ter last year found that 68 per-cent of ethnic media leaders de-scribed their primary goal asservice to the community, withless than a third listing makinga profit as their goal. In addi-tion, she said that while main-stream media audiences havesharply declined, there has beena 16 percent growth in the eth-nic media audiences over thelast five years.

"Even a modest investment of$2 million in those outlets thathave been left out or, like JoeOrozco, believe they have moreeffective ways to message totheir audiences could increasethe response rate dramatically insome regions between the cru-cial period between April 15 andthe end of July," Ms. Close said."More important, it would ac-knowledge that not just the pri-mary ethnic news outlets but theentire ethnic media sector has anindispensable role to play in howgovernment communicates withthe governed."


NAM tells Congress to better utilizeethnic media for Census

The memo is available at http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.DHS grants TPS to Haitians

Following the catastrophicearthquake in Haiti, the Obamaadministration announced that itis granting temporary protectedstatus (TPS) to Haitians who werein the U.S. as of January 12, 2010.The designation will allow eligibleHaitian nationals in the U.S. tocontinue living and working in thecountry for the next 18 months.Secretary of Homeland SecurityJanet Napolitano noted that"[t]hose who attempt to travel tothe United States after January 12,

2010, will not be eligible for TPSand will be repatriated."

In a related field guidancememo issued on January 15, Sec-retary Napolitano said that U.S.Citizenship and Immigration Ser-vices "will implement proceduresto adjudicate favorably, wherepossible, applications forchange or extension of nonimmi-grant status following the expi-ration of an applicant's period ofadmission; grant an additionalperiod of parole or advance pa-role in appropriate cases; andauthorize 'F' nonimmigrant stu-dents' requests for off-campusemployment work authoriza-tion." She said USCIS will also

Tips on filing immigrant petitionfor alien worker

Cont’d from page 40 "expedite the processing of ad-vance parole applications andrelative petitions for minor chil-dren from affected areas," andwill "grant employment authori-zation where appropriate."

The field guidance memo,which outlines actions a USCISofficer may take when an applicantis a Haitian national or a habitualresident of Haiti, is available athttp://www.uscis.gov/USCIS/Laws/Memoranda/2010/haiti-field-guidance.pdf.

The Save our Servicescampaign for Census2010 replicates anapproach that NAMhas pioneeredthrough numeroussocial marketingcampaigns over thelast decade

India Post March 5, 2010www.indiapost.com

Real Estate44

Realty Tidbits

Real estate sector looking forwardto successful execution

After a year of consolidationand successful fund-raising, the Indian real estate

sector is looking at 2010 as a yearto build on the foundation made.While concerns over liquidity anddemand constraints have eased,developers are looking to executethe planned projects to maintaincash flows rather than raise moredebt.

In 2009, the demand for prop-erty revived as buyers looked tobenefit from low mortgage ratesand lower prices. Real estatebiggie DLF launched the two-phase Capital Greens project witha total developable space of 4 mil-lion square feet and it has beencompletely sold. Its rival Unitechlaunched over 24.4 million sq ft ofresidential projects, while HDILlaunched 3.3 million sq ft of suchprojects.

Till now, the residential priceshave remained stable or moved upnominally which has helped thedemand to remain strong. But nowprices in several cities have startedappreciating significantly and,with rising inflation, higher lend-ing rates and likelihood of a rever-sal in the government stimuluspolicy, demand is unlikely tostrengthen further. Analysts cov-ering the real estate sector toldDNA Money that a large quantumof supply coming up in the na-tional capital region (NCR) is likelyto prevent prices from moving upin the very near term, but rateswould climb up later in 2010.

Developers such as Unitech,Parsvnath and DLF have been ableto attract good demand for newprojects, which were launched in

April last year at a 30-35% dis-count to the prevailing marketrates of that time. In neighboringGurgaon, new projects have beenlaunched at a 5-10% discount tothe launches in the previous sixmonths. However, in Mumbai, thecountry's second-largest real es-tate market, prices have moved up25-30% over the past six months,especially in regions of South andSouth-Central Mumbai.

Unitech, which has constructed

35 million sq ft of residentialprojects since it started off opera-tions in 1986, launched 24.4 mil-lion sq ft in the first nine monthsof the current fiscal.

This has led to concerns aboutthe company's ability to executeits plan within the time period. Thecompany plans to invest Rs 1,880crore and Rs 3,520 crore, respec-tively, in construction activities infiscal 2011 and 2012. It recentlytripled its construction work forceto over 20,000 workers. "Duringthe last 9 months, the company hasramped up construction activity at

various project sites… it currentlyhas over 60 projects under execu-tion. Workforce employed atproject sites has increased signifi-cantly and currently stands atnearly 20,000 workers. Structuralwork is complete in over 80% ofthe past projects and nearly halfof these projects are in handover/finishing stages," SanjayChandra, managing director atUnitech, said.

Even Parsvnath Developers,

the sixth-largest real estate firm bysales, has announced plans tolaunch 10-12 million square feet ofprojects in the next fiscal. "Wewould invest Rs 1,500 crore as costfor these projects, which would bemet from internal accruals and cus-tomer advances.

Our total goal is to launch 42million sq feet in the next 24months, but that is it - we are look-ing to execute these projectsrather than launching new ones.2010 and 2011 will be the execu-tion years for us," Pradeep Jain,chairman, Parsvnath, said. This

year might also see the ambitiousReal Estate Regulation Bill, thataims to facilitate growth and pro-mote a transparent, efficient andcompetitive real estate market inthe country, being tabled in Par-liament.

The government is keen on in-troducing a system of rating forbuilders and developers throughthe Bill. The move is expected tohelp improve transparency of theiroperations, and help the belea-guered sector regain the confi-dence of financial institutions andpotential customers. But every-thing is not rosy in the commer-cial realty space, which is yet torecover from the slowdown.Though demand has picked up inthe third quarter, the absorptionlevels are still to catch up.

There is an estimated 62.3 mil-lion sq ft of leasable commercialspace to be completed in calendaryear 2010 and 45.6 million sq ft in2011 across Mumbai, NCR, Ban-galore, Pune, Chennai andHyderabad, according toPropEquity, a real estate consult-ant.

The improvement in the com-mercial realty demand is directlyrelated to IT growth in the coun-try and, with Nasscom predicting2010 to be better for the sector, thecommercial demand may slowlyfollow the growth in the IT sector.

Foreign investors remain bullish on IndiaForeign investors have re

mained bullish on India'shousing, real estate and

construction sectors in the lasttwo years, undaunted by scarceglobal financial resources. ForeignDirect Investment (FDI) in termsof inflows into equity in the In-dian construction and realty sec-tors have seen a sharp rise fromUSD 1.19 billion in April-Decem-ber 2007 to USD 5.6 billion in thefirst three quarters of the currentfiscal, as per the official data.

In March 2005, the governmenthad liberalized the foreign invest-ment norms with a view to cata-lyzing investment in the realty sec-tor. The government allows 100 percent FDI through automatic route

in construction developmentprojects, including housing, re-

sorts, commercial premises, edu-cational institutions, recreationalfacilities, city and regional level

infrastructure and townships.Though the FDI norms were liber-alized in 2005, the government hadimposed certain conditions like alock-in period on repatriation ofinvestment for three years. Therepatriation could only be allowedwith permission of Foreign Invest-ment Promotion Board.

Global property consultantJones Lang Lasalle Meghraj in areport said, "Contrary to the com-monly held belief of capital flightoccurring during 2008, the actualdeployment of FDI into India's realestate sector increased 29 per centyear-on-year during the financialyear 2009." Dubai-based Emaar isa major foreign investor which hasentered the country in a big way.

Ansal revivingSEZ launch inHaryana

Ansal API, the New Delhi-based real estate player that

deferred plans to launch specialeconomic zone (SEZ) projects inthe National Capital Region (NCR)due to falling commercial demandin sector, is now launching an agroand food processing SEZ atMurthal in Haryana, spread over250 acres. The developer is alsolooking to set up a biotech park inLucknow across 80 acres, which willhouse 42 biotech firms. The com-pany would invest Rs 1,000 crore inthe unit. In the first phase of theproject, Ansal would sell plots in thesizes of 5-10 acres and multiples tocompanies, which would be opera-tional from early 2011.

The developer has alreadysigned memorandum of under-standing (MoU) with five rice ex-porters and is expecting sales inthe range of Rs 600-700 crore fromthe initial phase. The funds raisedfrom selling the plots would beused to construct built-out unitsin the subsequent phases, whichwould be either leased or sold.

DLF pricingnew project60% higher

In the strongest endorsement yetof the turnaround in the real es-

tate sector, DLF Ltd, India's larg-est developer, is pricing its hous-ing project in Delhi 60% higherthan its previous launch. Theproject, Capital Greens 3, which isexpected to be launched nextmonth, has been tentatively pricedat Rs 12,000 per square foot, ac-cording to real estate brokers.

Phase I and II of the CapitalGreens project, which waslaunched in April and October last,were sold off in a couple of daysas they were priced at Rs 5,500 persq ft and Rs 7,500 per sq ft, re-spectively, much lower than thethen-prevailing price of Rs10, 000sq ft. DLF had recently indicatedin a conference call that demandfor luxury homes is back so itwould launch some projects in thisyear.

No hike in interest rates,confirms SBI

RBI hiked the cash reserve ratio by 75 basis pointsbut the increase in overall credit was still moving

at snail's pace. Keeping this in mind, India's largestlender State Bank of India (SBI) announced that thelending rates would not be changed much and wouldlargely remain stable for the coming 5-6 months.

There are now enough liquidity ratios in the systemand the credit offtake is still slow thus the home loanrates are to remain stable for some time.

This year might also see the ambitious RealEstate Regulation Bill, that aims to facilitategrowth and promote a transparent, efficient andcompetitive real estate market in the country,being tabled in Parliament

‘Contrary to the com-monly held belief ofcapital flight occurringduring 2008, the actualdeployment of FDI intoIndia's real estatesector increased 29 percent year-on-yearduring the financialyear 2009’


www.indiapost.com

Classifieds

Parents looking for a groom

for their beautiful daughter,

American Citizen, 31years,

5'3" tall, Caste No Bar.

Please send your picture

and biodata to P.O.Box #

342, India Post

29274 Union City Blvd.,

Union City, CA - 94587.

MATRIMONIALSMATRIMONIALS

BRIDEGROOM WANTED

Well Settled in California,

Punjabi Khatri parents

looking for a suitable

professional match for

their beautiful daughter,

slim, 29 years, 5’5” tall

and well educated. Kindly

respond with photo and

biodata to P.O.Box # 340,

India Post, 29274 Union

City Blvd., Union City,

CA - 94587, USA.

Looking For A Suitable

Match For "Hindu

Punjabi" girl, 29, 5'5"

working. Boy Should

Be Tall, Good Looking,

Well Educated, Profes-

sional And Financially

Stable. Please Email At

[email protected]

Hindu Punjabi parents

seek a suitable match for

their daughter, 32, 5' 8'',

Lawyer in U.S.A. Boy

should be at least 6' tall,

professional, and brought

up in North America.

Email:[email protected]

or Call416-464-7471

PUNJABI FAMILY

INVITES

CORRESPODENCE

FOR THEIR WORKING

DAUGHTER 28 YRS

OF AGE, 5'6". SEEKING

US RAISED WORKING

BOY. SEND RE-

SPONSE [email protected]

OR CALL AT714-234-4921

Parents seeking

match for Punjabi

Khatri handsome son

born Nov. 1978, 5'9"

educated,

selfemployed. Alliance

invited from beautiful

educated girl. Email

biodata and

photograph to

[email protected]

or Call

(626) 374-1942HINDU SOOD KHATRI

PARENTS FROM LOS

ANGELES INVITE

ALLIANCE FOR THEIR

U.S.CITIZEN SON 28/6'

HAVING B.S. DEGREE

IN ACCOUNTING

AND FINANCE. IF

INTERESTED, PL CALL

AT (818) 996-2825 AND/

OR EMAIL BIO DATA

WITH PHOTO AT

[email protected]

Jat Sikh parents invite a

matrimonial alliance for their

beloved, beautiful daughter,

age 26 years, 5 feet 5 inches

tall, UC graduate and profes-

sionally employed in the bay

area. Please contact:

[email protected]

PUNJABI SIKH PARENTS

INVITE CORRESPON-

DENCE FROM WELL

ESTABLISHED FAMILIES

FOR DAUGHTER, 24 YRS,

BEAUTIFUL, SLIM, 5’3",

MASTERS-HUMAN

GENETICS, LIVING IN

INDIA. PROFESSIONALS

PREFERRED. PLEASE

SEND BIODATA WITH

[email protected]

PH:562-201-1130

42, youthful, handsome,PhD, professor in presti-

gious university,IIT undergrad,

Brahmin, vegetarian, UScitizen, divorcee never lived

together, seeks partnerbelow 36, Indian values,

caring, PhD, MD, profes-sionals, bio/photo details

[email protected]

Khatri Family seeking a

suitable match for their

handsome, tall, non-

smoker, non-drinker,

professional son 26 yr old,

5' 9'' and well educated

family background.

Please contact

510-461-6891or email bio data at

[email protected]

For Chanderika:Seeking alliance for

41 year old/5’5”

Punjabi Khatri, well

established profes-

sional teacher. Very

brief marriage an-

nulled. Seeking ma-

ture, responsible

match from sincere

professional/business-

man, West Coast

preferred. Email

bio-data/photo at

[email protected] Sikh 5.1’ 25 Girl B.M.I.T.; P.G.D.C.A., from India.

M.B.A (I.T) From USA. Has Student Visa and work

permit Trying for H-1B Visa

Brother Dentist in India. Father & Mother in USA

Seeks Suitable Immigrant boy from USA or CANADA.

Contact at Email: [email protected]

with Bio data and Photo

Brahmin boy, ( fromwell-educated family of

engineers ) 27 yrs,5'10",very attractive

personality ,from top-tierMBA + B-Tech

from US,born/bred in India, UScitizen, worked as Sr.consultant in Big four,great sense of humor,respectful in line withIndian culture seeks

attractive match willingto settle in SF bay.

Caste nobar. Please contact

[email protected]

OWNER OPERATORS WANTED WITH OR WITHOUT

TRAILER, WEEKLY SETTLEMENT, DEDICATED OVER

THE ROAD. CALL

888-827-7525

Agrawal parents seeking

well established profes-

sional match for their 36/

5'1", daughter, health

professional, pretty, fair

US citizen. Caste no

bar. 714-220-8576,

[email protected].

For Classifieds Ads Call

SOUTHERN CA

(J. S. Bedi)

Tel: 562-644-9523/

Telefax: 562-929-4213

[email protected]

SOUTHERN CA

(Shashi Trivedi)

Tel: 562-441-5511/

Fax: 562-947-0632

[email protected]

NORTHERN CA

(Sonia)

Tel: 510-938-8668

[email protected]

CHICAGO

(Ramesh Soparawala)

Tel: 773-973-7394 /

Fax: 773-973-7396

[email protected]

NEW YORK (Pinky)

Tel: 212-944-1931/

Fax: 212-944-1932

[email protected]

46 March 5, 2010India Post

www.indiapost.com

Classifieds

1 MALE AND 1

FEMALE ENGLISH

BULLDOG.

If you are interested in

the puppies.

Contact email

INTERESTEDIN PUPPIES?

[email protected]

PAYROLLACCOUNTANT

WANTEDCurrently seeking payroll

clerks and accountants.

Job comes with great

benefits,

Applicants should kindly

e-mail resumes or

inquiries to Guiseppina

[email protected]

FOR SALEHotel property inManhattan NY-

Chelsea .50,000 sq ftBuild able .50x100 lotUp to 24 Stories highPrice $13 Million J/V

possible.Only serious buyers-

Please. [email protected]

RESTAURANT HELP WANTED

IN CLEVELAND

Upscale Indian Cuisine (Inchin’s Bamboo Garden- Tadka)

In Cleveland Ohio is looking forProfessional servers

Good compensation Call

(440) 734-0500

NEED HELP

VENUS SALON NEED

EXPERIENCED

THREADING LADY

FULL TIME OR PART

TIME IN UNION CITY.

PLEASE CALL TIVIA

@

(510) 441-8462OR VISIT THE

LOCATION AT 2625

DECOTO RD.,

UNION CITY.

STORES FOR RENT at Linconwood, Devon

and Cove Plaza, Schaumburg.For details ContactLRM Investments

Phone : 773-416-3322Email : [email protected]

Upscale Salon in WalnutCreek looking for

experienced Threader.Please call

925-785-3694for interview.

HELP NEEDED

DO YOU HAVE ADREAM OF BEING

DEBT FREE ARE YOU TRYING 2

GET UR CREDITCLEAN

1888-632-9073

NO ADVANCE FEES

BUSINESSFOR LESSTHAN 7K

Dry Cleaner Storefor Sale

For details ContactLRM Investments

Phone : 773-416-3322Email :

[email protected]

FINANCINGYOU NEED MONEY?

CALL US! FAST CASH- SBA LOANS HOTELS MOTELS,

BARS, FRANCHISES, GAS STATION & C STORES LEAS-

ING MACHINERY & EQUIPMENT PURCHASE & REFI-

NANCE CONSTRUCTION LOANS. LOW INTEREST RATES

BAD CREDIT OK CONTACT

MAHESH JANI: (845)735 -0183

“HOTEL HELP/COUPLE WANTED”

For FRONT DESK NIGHT AU-

DIT, House-keeping, Laundry,

only. Energetic English/Hindi

speaking/Punjabi speaking,

Couple wanted In Franchise

Hotel Florida / Georgia .Good

Salary, Benefits Live Inn Ac-

commodation, Immediate

placement.

Please contact,Manish or Bobby at(904)891-5278,or(912)729-5454.

Urgent HelpNeeded

Care giver & companion

for senior male.

Live in/out at our home in

Union City, CA

Vegetarian/ Male.

must have a GreenCard,

Passion, patience

& desire to help seniors

Call Charu

510-381-2105

or e-mail

[email protected]

Wanted MotelManager

Couple or Wanted SinglePerson for Motel WorkExperience Preferred.Accommodation Pro-vided & Good Salary

Please Call(314)-922-8190 or

(213)-926-2727

GreatOpportunity

Come as a Part Time

Payment Collection

Representative to

you and it take little

out of your time, it

pays any amount in a

month plus benefits

and takes only little

of your time. Please

send-mail to

[email protected]

I Vaishali D/o Vinod

Kumar Kashyap and

Reena Kashyap R/o

4828 Wexler

Peak Way, Antioch

CA-94531 have

changed my name to

Vaishali Kashyap for

all future purposes.

Name Change


www.indiapost.com

Classifieds

Staybridge 98 Room Project For Salein Spring/Houston TX ;

Includes land ,Plan and Permit .

pls Contact Listing for further info

Agent

AMIT MEHTA

#832 607 1579

GET FREE PRODUCTSEVERYDAY!

There's a company that gives never-ending freebies toyou. And you can make a monthly income too!

Get FREE groceries, FREE jewelry, FREE electronics,FREE software, and more. In fact, just about anything

you can think of, there is a category of freebies.To join, go to www.abm.nocashever.comQuestions? [email protected]

LOOKING FOR A MANAGERSubway restaurant in Cypress and Fullerton .

Fluent in English,Experience necessary,

Email Resume: [email protected]

Quiznos in a prime location in Inland

Empire area for sale.

Only interested parties,

CONTACT

[email protected] or

call (909)851-53955.30pm to 7.00pm only.

BUSINESS FOR SALE

San Francisco based restaurant looking for a

EXECUTIVE CHEF/culinary graduate.

Must have 10 YEARS of experience.

(650) 271-2849

Executive Chef

ILLINOIS

Upcoming

March 5, 2010India Post48

www.indiapost.com

DatebookNEW YORK

Upcoming

NEW JERSEY

Upcoming

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Upcoming

Sun March 7• Zara Jhoom "The Ultimate Group Dance

Competition"Venue: Hoilday Inn, 3050 Woodbridge Ave, Edison,New JerseyTime: 5pmContact: 732-277-6687

Thus March 11• Hasya Rus- 3 Hours Comedy ExpressVenue: Quality Inn, Maple Shade, NJ, Cherry Hill, NJ, Rt 73North & RT 38, Maple Shade, New JerseyTime: 7:30pm to 10:30pmContact: 856-313-6741

Sat March 20• Naach RevolutionVenue: Union County Arts Center, 1601 Irving Street,Rahway, New JerseyTime: 6pm to 9pm

Contact: 732-763-0118

Sat March 27• Marathi Vishwa-Vasantotsav 2010Venue: Crosroads Middle School- South, 195 Major Road,Monmouth Junction, New JerseyTime: 3pm to 8pmContact: 732-355-9844

Sat March 27• 2010 Spring FestivalVenue: Ocean Township High School, Ocean, New JerseyTime: 3pm to 9pmContact: 732-801-4694

Sat May 29• Vishwa Marathi Natya SammelanVenue: Raritan Center, New Jersey Convention Center, 97Sunfield Avenue, Edison, New JerseyHighlights: The VMNS will be hosted and executed by theUS branch of ABMNP, led by Dr. Meena Nerurkar and herteam. It will have an attendance of some V.V.I.P.s in the enter-tainment industry, about 200 top notch artists fromMaharashtra, the chief minister of Maharashtra and govern-ment representatives.

Sat April 3• India Fair 2010Venue: New Jersey Exhibition And Convention Center,Raritan Center, 97 Sunfield Avenue, Edison, New JerseyTime: 11am to 9pmContact: 609-240-2350

Every 4th Sat every Month• Durga Mata Ka JagaranVenue: 2335 S. Diamond Bar Boulevard, DBC Center, Dia-mond Bar, CATime: 6:30pmContact: 909-519-1579, 626-810-2345

Every Thursday evening• Pranayam, Meditation & HealingVenue: 18743, Pioneer Blvd, Suite Artesia, CA 90702Time: 6:30pm to 8:30pmContact: (949)235-2960

Every Sat (start from Sat Aug 8)• Gurukul Classes for ChildrenVenue: Sindhu Center, South CaliforniaTime: 2pm to 4pmContact: 818-541-1754 & 909-576-1114Highlights: Children between the ages of 5 and 18. Chil-dren will be taught the Fundamentals of Hinduism, Prayers,Shlokas, Bhajans and Values of our culture.

Tues March 2• Conflict and Hope in the Congo (DRC):

Ohlone College World ForumVenue: Smith Center at Ohlone College, 43600 MissionBoulevard, FremontTime: Discussion-1pm, Q&A-1pm to 2pmContact: www.ohlone.edu/go/worldforum

Thurs March 4• South Asian Professional SinglesVenue: The Auld Dubliner, 71 South Pine Ave, Long Beach,CaliforniaContact: (951)743-4995

Thurs March 4• Hon. Harry Sidhu for Orange County

Superviosor, 4th districtVenue: Bombay garden Restaurant, 17221, Pioneer Blvd,Artesia, CATime: 3pm to 5pmContact: 562-773-5674Highlights: Jimmy Sandhu, Rattan Joea, Gary Grewal, Mike Patel

Fri March 26• Music and Dance Festival 2010Venue: Jewish Community Center, Los Angeles, CaliforniaTime: 7pm to 10pmContact: 858-200-7481

Sat, April 10• Santa CruzVenue: United Church of Christ, First CongregationalChurch, 900 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95060Time: 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.Contact: 800-475-2369

Sat, April 24• BerkeleyVenue: Unity of Berkeley at The Ecumenical Center on HolyHill, 2401 LeConte Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94709Time: 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.Contact: 800-475-2369

Fri March 5• An Evening with Imran KhanVenue: Victor Hotel Lounge, 311 N. Sangamon, Chicago,IllinoisTime: 9pm to 2amContact: 773-490-0975

Tues March 16• Ugadi CelebrationsVenue: Hindu Temple, 10915 Lemont Rd, Lemont, IllinoisTime: 10:30am to 7:30pmContact: (630) 972-0300


Fri March 19• ShakuntalaVenue: Prairie Center for the Arts, 201 Schaumburg Court,Schaumburg, IllinoisTime: 7:30pm to 9:30pmContact: 847-755-9625

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Upcoming

Sat March 6• Vibha DC Rangeela RendezvousVenue: Heritage India, 1337 Connecticut Ave, NW, WDCTime: 10pmContact: [email protected]

Wed March 24• Ram NavmiVenue: Hare Krishna Temple, 10310 Oaklyn Drive,Potomac, MarylandContact: 301-299-2100

Sat March 27• 2010 Space OdysseyVenue: Heritage Lounge, 1337 Connecticut Ave, Wash-ington, District of ColumbiaTime: 9:30pmContact: 402-933-0647

Fri April 2• The Essence of All AdviceVenue: Hare Krishna Temple, Potomac, Maryland, 20854Contact: 301-299-2100

WASHINGTON DC

Upcoming

Sat March 6• India Literacy Project Cultural Fest - 2010Venue: FootHill College, 12345 El Monte Blvd, Los Al-tos Hills, CaliforniaTime: 6pm to 9pmContact: 408-340-0428Highlights: Indian Classical Music: Jugalbandhi by promi-nent Bay Area artists. Shri Ravi Gutala - Tabla, Shri ShriramBrahmanandam - Mridangam, Shri A. Mahadevan - Morsing,Bollywood Music: Bollywood music by IndianMusic Band"Ehsaaz".


Sat March 20• Nachle Express 2010 Dance ShowVenue: The MAC, 425 Fawell Boulevard, Glen Ellyn, IllTime: 6:30pm to 9:30pmContact: (630) 216-9632

Sun March 7

• Tamil Folk Songs - Oliver

Rajamani ConcertVenue: Grand Theatre Center for the Arts Events, Tracy,CaliforniaTime: 4pm to 6:30pmContact: 209-831-6TKT

Sat March 6• Bharata Natyam Student Recital 2010Venue: City Center Studios, 130 West 56th street, studio#3, NYCContact: (917) 214-6466

Sun March 7• Zara Jhoom "The Ultimate Group

Dance Competition"Venue: Hoilday Inn, 3050 Woodbridge Ave, EdisonTime: 5pmContact: 732-277-6687

Sat March 13• Holi Celebration 2010Venue: Warde High School, Fairfield, 755 Melville Av.,Fairfield, ConnecticutTime: 4pm to 7pmContact: 203-329-3234

Sat March 13• Zakir Hussain's Masters of PercussionVenue: Rose Theater, Broadway at 60th Street, New YorkTime: 8pmContact: 212-545-7536

Fri March 19• Bombay Jazz - Indian-inspired jazz &

jazz-flavored ragasVenue: Skirball Center, for the Performing Arts, 566LaGuardia Place, Washington Square South, New YorkTime: 8pmContact: 212-545-7536

Sat March 27• IMPACT Aatif Aslam and Shreya

Ghoshal - live in ConcertVenue: Trump Taj Mahal Casino, 1000 Boardwalk, Atlan-tic city, NYTime: 7:30pmContact: 609-432-3301

Sat May 1• Dancing STAR ka DamakaVenue: Shreenath Enterprise Inc, 220-15, 92 ave queensvillage, New YorkTime: 7pmContact: 347-513-8526


Page Sponsored by Sahanis

There are two powers: oneis called in Sufi termsKaza and the other Kadr.

One is individual power and theother is God-power. The indi-vidual power can work and canaccomplish things as long as itis working in consonance withGod's power, but the moment theindividual power works contraryto God's power the man beginsto realize that his strength is di-minishing, that he cannot accom-plish anything.

Therefore the first thing thatmasters seek is the pleasure ofGod, to be in consonance withthe will of God.

And just as a person who haspracticed a gambling game or anykind of sport has learnt the wayin which to practice it, so the manwho has it continually in mind todo everything in consonancewith God's power is helped bythe will of God.

Very often people have misun-

Every soul is in itself

absolutly omniscient and

blissful. The bliss does

not come from outside.

-Lord Mahavir

An insincere and evil

friend is more to be

feared than a wild beast;

a wild beast may wound

your body, but an evil

friend will wound your

mind.

-Buddha

Allah is with those who

restrain themselves.

-Quran

God is closest to those

with broken hearts.

-Jewish quote

"As fragrance abides in

the flower

As reflection is within the

mirror,

So does your Lord abide

within you,

Why search for him with-

out?"

-Guru Nanak

Repeating the name of

Ranjha

I have become Ranjha

myself.

O call me ye all "Dhido-

Ranjha,"

let no one call me Heer .

-Bulle Shah

If you assert that the

world exists, it is your

burden to prove that it

does. The opponent has

only to deny it, until the

existence is proved be-

yond doubt.

-Atmananda KrishnaMenon

www.indiapost.com

You Insure all your Valuables, all are replaceable except YOU! So Insure yourself FIRST. Call Sahanis, (Arish, Priya or Shiv) for your Insurance needs 718- 271- 0453. Serving for last 35 yrs

Philosophy

PARAMAHAMSA

NITHYANANDA

One man was a very God-conscious and lovingman and he did a lot of

good deeds in his life. He came toknow that there was a particularbook with a person, that had thenames of people who loved God. Hewas excited to find out if his namewas there in the book and went tothat person and asked if he couldsee the book.He searched throughall the pages several times but couldnot find his name in it. He was verydisappointed and went away.

A year later, he came back tosee if his name had been added tothe book. Again, he could not findit anywhere. As he was turning toleave, the man said, "Sir, pleasewait. This book has the list of namesof people who love God. I have an-other very small book that has afew names in it. It is the list ofnames of people whom God loves."He showed the man the book.Theman found his name in it.

It is very easy to fall for God.After all, he is so loving, so giv-ing, so powerful and what not. Youcan continue to say that you lovehim and remain where you are. Butwhen you start feeling God at theBeing level and the transformationhappens in you, God will fall foryou! You will find yourself beingloved in many ways like you have

never known before. Such is thecompassionate love of God.

When you open yourself toExistence, it fills you up. Howmuch you open yourself out, thatmuch it fills you up. You all thinkthat you have to work hard to clingon to God. Not at all.

Have you seen the way a youngmonkey clings to its mother? Thereis every possibility that it might letgo and fall. Whereas with a cat, themother clings on to its kitten; thekitten then is perfectly safe.

You don't have to cling to God.If you just allow yourself and doyour duty leaving the rest, God willcling on to you. Falling for God isnot a big deal. Making God fall foryou is a big deal!

This will happen when youhave undaunted faith and live alife of love and service.

Try to remember this joke when-ever something is bothering you.Immediately try to connect with thejoke and see with awareness whatis bothering you.

Go deep down and see whetheryou are really having a problem oryou are simply allowing your mindto play. You may just laugh at theend of it.

One lady was traveling on along-distance flight.

The air-hostess came servingfood for everyone. She found the

lady fast asleep and so she movedon to the next person.

The lady woke up after a whileand asked for her food. The air-hostess brought her food for her.

The lady touched the food andflared up, "What sort of an airlineare you running? The food is notwarm. I have paid through my nose

We misunderstand thewill of God

derstood the will of God. They thinkthat what they consider good is thewill of God, and what they considernot good is not the will of God. Buttheir idea of good and wrong hasnothing to do with the power ofGod; because God's outlook is dif-ferent from man's outlook. Manonly sees so far and no further,whereas God sees all things.

But one wonders, if we all be-long to the body of God, if we areall as atoms of His Being, why dowe not understand, why do we not

readily know what is in consonancewith the will of God and what not?

And the answer is that eachatom of our body is conscious ofit self. If there is a pain in the fin-ger, the ear does not feel it. If thereis a pain in the toe, the nose doesnot feel it; only the toe feels it. Butin both cases the man feels it be-cause the man possesses thewhole body.

Man lives in a narrow world hehas made for him self According

to it he sees right and wrong, andhis interests in life depend uponit. Therefore he is not always ableto work in consonance with thewill of God unless he makes it ahabit to work in consonance withGod's will.

What is man? Is man only hisbody? No, man is his mind, man isthe soul. And therefore the powerof man is greater than the powerof the sun, for the sun we see isonly a body, but man is body,mind, and soul.

Once man has become con-scious of his body, mind, and soul,his power becomes greater thanthe power of the sun. Because thesun is the material manifestationof the light, but man has all lightswithin him.

The body of man is radiance; aradiance which is so great that allthe invisible beings which live inspace are hidden by the glow ofthe human form.

Nothing exists which is not

to take this flight and I can't evenget warm food!"

The air-hostess apologizedsaying, "Ma'am, please excuse us.The warmer is not working. Therest of the people also had theirfood this way."

The lady said, "Is that so?Then it is alright."

See, the food remains cold evennow, but the lady is no more unhappybecause she knows that everyoneelse also had the food that way!

This is what I mean when I say

that everything is a play of themind, everything is an adjustmentof the mind.

The mind keeps switching itsstance and playing on you, be-cause you have allowed it to takeover. You have not centered your-self on contentment and so yousway according to your mind.

Open yourself to Existence,it fills you up

visible; only one thing which ismore visible hides the otherwhich is not so visible. It is theglow and radiance of the humanbody which is so great that ithides the beings in space. In re-ality they are all visible; but theradiance of man's form standsout and hides all that are lessvisible compared with it.

When we look at life from thispoint of view, there is nothing thatis invisible. It is only that thereare things which our eyes haveno power to see, but this does notmean that they are formless.

Besides man's mind has a stillgreater power, and that is thepower of will, of mind, that canbring about change in condi-tions, in environments; it canhave power over matter, overobjects, over affairs; it can evenwork so wonderfully that onecannot explain it.

When it is told in the story ofDaniel that he went into the li-ons' den and made them all lietamed at his feet, that is againthe spiritual power. It showswhat power man has; at the sametime, not knowing of it, not beingconscious of it, not trying to de-velop it, he debars himself fromthat great privilege and bliss thatGod has given; and with his lim-ited powers he works in the worldfor money. In the end no moneyremains with him, nor has he everknown power.

HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN

You can continue to say that you love him andremain where you are. But when you start feelingGod at the Being level and the transformationhappens in you, God will fall for you!

What is man? Is man only his body? No,man is his mind, man is the soul. Andtherefore the power of man is greater thanthe power of the sun

50 Edit Pagewww.indiapost.com

March 5, 2010India Post

India Post

Evolving a strategic matrixPANKAJ JHA

In the backdrop of an increas-ingly assertive China and anuncertain Pakistan, India has

embarked on a major strategic of-fensive which includes takingAmerican allies on board, cooper-ating with countries that are ap-prehensive of China and, last butnot least, using its more than av-erage economic growth to enticeexport led economies of Asia.

If one analyses state visits toIndia in the last six months, it be-comes clear that though climatechange and WTO negotiationshave been the issues discussedwith trans-Atlantic countries, how-ever, economic resilience hasproved that India rather than be-ing a 'swing state' is very much onthe path of becoming the 'secondstate' in Asia.

The strategic community in In-dia has witnessed visits by the

Japanese Prime Minister, GermanPresident, Canadian Prime Minis-ter, Australian Prime Minister,South Korean President, Vietnam-ese Defense Minister and Malay-sian Prime Minister in a period ofthree months.

This shows India's elevation asa relevant regional power. Indiahas initiated a comparativelyquick defense procurement pro-cess and defense budget alloca-tion has also risen dramatically inthe last five years, despite the factthat each year thousands of croresare left unutilized.

In its eastern neighborhood,India has signed a defense MoUwith Vietnam which includes pro-visions of training, defense coop-eration, cooperation against pi-racy and joint exercises. Vietnamis currently strengthening its navyand has ordered six kilo-class sub-marines from Russia and is alsokeen on the Russian Sukhois.

Japan also has shown interestin not only economic cooperationwith India but also over an 'Ac-

tion Plan on Security Cooperation'which points to the fact that the'China threat' is not being ignoredunder the usual posturing. Issuessuch as areas of strategic inter-est, defense cooperation includ-ing joint exercises and non tradi-tional threats are highlighted.

While China has been harpingon the need to secure its suppliesand has projected its Indian Oceanpolicy, India should also deviseSouth China Sea policy on thesame argument of 'securing tradeand energy supplies'. The visit ofMalaysian Prime Minister to In-dia in January 2010 has buttressedIndia's position - both in the eco-nomic and strategic realms.

The Malaysian Prime Ministerdid endorse a joint statement per-taining to labor welfare, defense,science and technology coopera-tion, energy, climate change and

higher education but the stresswas on negotiating a favorabletrade agreement with Malaysia.

Southeast Asian countries areclamoring for Indian investors' at-tention and Indian markets whileIndia is keen on markets for itsservices industry. With the rapidgrowth of services industry,greater than 35-40 per cent eachyear, India is keen to cash in onthe knowledge base.

Also the services industry inSingapore has reached a thresh-old level and India wants to diver-sify its services base. In that caseMalaysia acts as a lucrative alter-native. Malaysia wants to exportits palm oil to India on reducedtariffs because of the fact that In-donesia and Malaysia are compet-ing for India's palm oil markets.

The Joint Study Reports forboth countries have been submit-ted to the respective governmentsand economic bargaining has be-gun. Economics is bestowing stra-tegic leverages to India. ThoughIndia cannot compete with China,

it surely can erode the cost advan-tages of the rising economic su-perpower.

In the strategic context, the en-hancement of the Andaman andNicobar base with the proposal ofdeploying more naval ships (cur-rently there are only about 3-4 lo-gistics ships stationed in theAndaman and Nicobar Command),as well as the proposal for station-ing two Sukhoi squadrons in theisland group, shows trends to-wards dual use in terms of secur-ing the idyllic islands as well asprojecting power.

Mincing no words, it is alsoimportant that through the yearsin the Annual reports of Ministryof Defense, China has appeared asa threat and Maritime Doctrine2009 also caters to such a strate-gic compulsion. India's diversifieddefense procurement as well asdevelopment of the long rangemissiles like Agni V shows that the

will exists to meet strategic chal-lenges.

Also cooperation with coun-tries like Korea and Australiashows that India is working on thesecond arc concept which spansfrom Japan, Korea and Australia.A number of agreements havebeen signed with these countriesover a wide range of issues.

With Korea, there are possibili-ties of defense cooperation moreso in areas of joint exercise, pro-duction as well as export of de-fense equipment, perhaps eventhe construction of nuclear powerplants in India.

India is also looking for compat-ibility with Australia, in spite of theattacks on students the two coun-tries are carefully calibrating theirstrategic needs and mutual inter-ests. The two countries' Joint Dec-laration on counter-terrorism, de-fense and maritime security clearlyarticulates the strategic conver-gence. India's current initiatives arethus sure to create in the comingdecade a 'strategic parallax'.

The writer is Associate Fellow,Institute for Defense Studies andAnalyses. Courtesy IPCS

President Pratibha Patil along with Chief Guest Korean President

Lee Myung-bak at the 61st Republic Day

Straws in wind

Having exhausted its leverage with United States to bringIndia round to talks and to conceding Kashmir to it, Paki-stan is now depending on its all-weather friend China to

pull its chestnuts out of fire. During all this while it has done noth-ing to control the terrorists of various nomenclatures which havenot only attacked Indian cities but continue killing Pakistanis aswell. In fact, after the talks invitation from India, the government ofPakistan seems to have given an all clear to chief India-baiter HafizSaeed to spread his venom.

There are some indications from China that it does not want totake sides in the India-Pakistan disputes. This should put paid tohopes of Pakistan which has always thrived on the inclination ofthe West to be partial to it in its disputes with India. It is only whenWest's own interests were in jeopardy in Afghanistan that it bulliedPakistan into playing its game in return for money. Now that theWest wants to play the same game by buying up the so-calledmoderate Taliban in Afghanistan, Pakistan's rulers have perked up.They now know the US and its western allies are going to walk outof Afghanistan sooner than later leaving the field open for Pakistanto play its tricks, once again in the unruly Afghan country. TheWest is also not making any protests at increased anti-India jihadiactivity leaving Pakistan free to snipe and provoke India.

On the eve of Secretary-level talks in New Delhi, Pakistani for-eign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi did not visit any westerncountry to bolster its case against India. He visited China, the newsuper power, for five days to plead for support in its demands onIndia. Interestingly, the all-weather friend has indicated to Qureshithat China wants to avoid action like investing in Pakistan-occu-pied Kashmir, which might hamper the India-Pakistan peace talks. AChinese foreign ministry official said China is conscious about India'ssensitivities when it deals with Pakistan. This is a new straw in thewind. Indian foreign ministry officials also say they have picked upsimilar signals suggesting that China was not interested in any de-terioration in India-Pakistani relations at this time. Beijing itself ismore concerned about the unstable political situation within Paki-stan and in Afghanistan partly because the Taliban exerts someinfluence over rebels in Xingjian in western China.

It is important to note the Chinese reluctance to fan the flames atthis time. The Chinese official said his country would do nothing tocause unease in New Delhi. China might also be reluctant to extendhelp for establishing more nuclear plants in Pakistan at this time, hesaid.

To hope there is a total change in China's approach towardsIndia and Pakistan would be wishful thinking. But it seems Chinahas learnt, unlike Pakistan, that encouraging terrorists means bring-ing trouble home. Also, when China says Kashmir is a sensitiveissue and it is a disputed territory, the language seems to harp backto their own concerns about Tibet and their fear of the autonomymovement led by the Dalai Lama.

If China speaks up something in support of Pakistan's stand onKashmir, a similar parallel could be drawn to its own trouble with the"splittists" meaning the Dalai Lama followers. If it frowns on theTibetan self-rule proponents and even suppresses them with a heavyhand, it cannot be seen to be supporting such "splittists" in Kash-mir.

It seems we might be seeing a more nuanced Chinese approachtowards India and Pakistan. The stand it took at the London talkson Afghanistan surprisingly seemed taken from India's book!

Japan also has showninterest in not onlyeconomic coopera-tion with India butalso over an 'ActionPlan on Security Co-operation' whichpoints to the fact thatthe 'China threat' isnot being ignored

India Postwww.indiapost.com

March 5, 201052

indiapost_03-05-2010

Documents

community post

healthscience post

immigration post

sports post

techbiz post

weeks questionindia

newsweeklyindia postindia

travel hospitality post